The Daily Populous Friday April 17th, 2026 night edition
Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by Unusual-State1827

President Donald Trump‘s administration plans to launch next Monday the system it will use for issuing refunds to American importers for $166 billion the companies paid in tariffs that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in February as unlawful.

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a court filing on Tuesday that it has completed the development of the initial phase of the refund system, known as CAPE. The system will consolidate refunds so importers will receive one electronic payment, with interest when applicable, rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis.

Agency official Brandon Lord made the declaration in the filing with the New York-based Court of International Trade. The agency disclosed the CAPE launch date in a separate announcement on Friday.

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law meant for use in national emergencies.

Tuesday’s filing said that as of April 9 some 56,497 ​importers had completed the process to receive electronic refunds for tariffs affected by the court’s ruling, an amount totaling $127 ‌billion.

The agency has said it plans to roll out the refund system in phases.

Lord said in his declaration that the agency is considering options for processing refunds on a subset of entries that were subject to $2.9 billion in tariffs. Lord said these normally would require manual processing, which would dramatically increase the workload and divert personnel from the agency’s trade operations and enforcement.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, importers sued for refunds in the Court of International Trade, which is monitoring the development of the refund system.

More than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs at issue on 53 million shipments of imported goods, according to court documents.

Customs and Border Protection has said the CAPE system will initially process refunds on recently imported goods and straightforward entries.

Many ⁠smaller importers feared the cost of the refund process would outweigh the benefits of trying to get reimbursed, forcing some companies to explore creative financing options related to refunds.

Trump denounced the Supreme Court after its ruling and imposed a new temporary global tariff under a different law, though that also has been challenged in court.

YesterShill on April 16th, 2026 at 15:21 UTC »

So, first Trump enacts a national sales tax and then companies get that tax refunded.

And people actually voted to get screwed.

The_Jolly_Dog on April 16th, 2026 at 15:08 UTC »

Absolutely infuriating. Trump fucked ALL Americans over here

and what’s insane is the mental gymnastics his moronic fans went thru to try and justify why these tariffs were a good idea. and now I’m sure they are going to do the same for this shit

god Trump needs to go

SuperstitiousPigeon5 on April 16th, 2026 at 14:53 UTC »

The returns will be going to the companies, who raised the prices on us. So they get to double dip.