The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stated in a court filing on Tuesday that approximately $20.6 billion is being disbursed to importers who have successfully submitted claims through a new online portal developed by the agency. However, the government's latest submission to the U.S. Court of International Trade also acknowledged a significant error in its previous report to the federal judge overseeing the tariff refund process. This indicates that the amount processed in the early stages of the program was substantially lower than earlier estimates.

Two weeks ago, a U.S. trade official had indicated that over $35.5 billion in refund claims were being processed. According to Brandon Lord, Executive Director of Trade Programs Execution in CBP's Office of Trade, that figure was "overstated by approximately $10 billion," with the actual amount closer to $25 billion.

Lord, referring to the Consolidated Automated Processing Environment (CAPE) system developed after the Supreme Court's ruling overturned most of the tariffs imposed by former President Trump, explained, "This does not reflect any error in CAPE processing or refunds, but rather an inadvertent error in the data query used to calculate that number."

He noted that as of May 22, CAPE had accepted for processing potential and certified refunds totaling approximately $85 billion. The $20.6 billion figure represents funds that have reached the final stage of being disbursed to importers.

Lord stated that this amount includes both principal tariff payments and interest, though a specific breakdown was not provided. CBP is currently issuing refunds to importers who paid up to $166 billion in duties across more than 53 million import entries. The process is being monitored by the Court of International Trade, which requires regular updates from the agency.

According to Tuesday's update, in the first phase of the refund effort, nearly 16 million entries subject to tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) have been accepted. Of these, 8.5 million entries have been reprocessed without the tariffs and certified for reimbursement to importers.

Lord also pointed out in Tuesday's filing that over 4,000 consolidated refund payments have yet to be sent to the Treasury Department because importers have not yet set up digital payment capabilities.