AG Jackson urges NC businesses to apply for tariff refunds

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Jackson urged North Carolina businesses impacted by President Trump’s first round of illegal tariffs to apply for refunds. 

“These tariffs cost North Carolina families and businesses $3.5 billion,” Jackson said in a press release. “That was money people needed for food, gas, and running their businesses. I hope eligible businesses act now to apply for refunds. The newly announced system is a good first step, but we need a faster process for refunds that doesn’t burden businesses.”

To streamline the submission and processing of legitimate refund requests for duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), as authorized by court order or applicable law, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) is developing the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) functionality within the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), according to a press release from CBP. CAPE is intended to consolidate refunds of IEEPA duties, including interest, rather than process them on an entry-by-entry basis. 

CAPE will be implemented through a phased development approach, with the first phase launched on April 20; subsequent phases will add functionality for more complex situations, according to CBP. The first phase is restricted to specific unliquidated entries and specific entries within 80 days of liquidation. 

“With the Supreme Court ruling that these businesses were charged tariffs illegally, it makes sense to be reimbursing them,” Brian Balfour, VP of research for the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “Such refunds exemplify the fact that the tariffs were a burden on US and North Carolina businesses and consumers. Better still would be for Congress to find a way to reimburse consumers who had to shoulder a share of the tariff burden, but that would likely be much more complicated. Tariffs, by design, are implemented to raise prices on certain imported goods in order to protect higher-priced domestic manufacturers from competition. In the end, consumers pay more.”

According to a recent report from the John Locke Foundation, “How Tariffs Threaten North Carolina Agriculture,” economic losses in the state of North Carolina could exceed $1.9 billion, or 2% of the state’s GDP, with almost $700 million of that coming from agriculture, the state’s No. 1 industry. Additionally, these economic losses could impact 8,000 jobs. 

“These tariffs were illegally imposed on imported goods, resulting in an estimated $166 billion dollars paid by over 330,000 American businesses and individuals on over 53 million shipments,” reads a letter to Congress sent by a coalition of attorneys general, including Jackson, dated March 18. “We propose that Congress enact legislation that would require the administration to provide a timely refund, with interest, of all duties wrongfully levied under IEEPA.” 

Eligible importers or brokers requesting refunds must submit a CAPE declaration listing the entries for which they are requesting refunds through an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) secure data portal account. Refunds, including interest, will be issued within 60-90 days of the declaration’s acceptance. If additional review is needed, refunds may take longer to issue. 

“Refunds should be processed regardless of entry type or liquidation status, leveraging existing data to calculate, manage, and automate the process, without a manual review,” continues the letter. 

The ACE portal already has the information and tools needed to return the exact amount of illegally collected funds from each importer to the government, according to the letter. Congress is also urged to consider ways to offset the financial impact of the tariffs on consumers.

On March 5, Jackson and a group of AGs filed a lawsuit to block the latest round of federal tariffs implemented on the same day that the IEEPAtariffs were struck down by the US Supreme Court.

“AG Jackson urges NC businesses to apply for tariff refunds” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.