CBP Refunds Paused During Shutdown, CBP's Leonard Says

CBP is not processing any refunds during the government shutdown, said John Leonard, CBP executive director-trade policy and programs, during a Jan. 7 conference call with industry. The agency is "not processing refunds of any kind on any type of normal entry or drawback transaction," Leonard said. The liquidation process is functioning, but "the backend refunding process and issuing of checks is not happening," he said. Interest may apply to those delayed refunds, Leonard said.

Regarding the "annual updates that we do to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule," Leonard said "those updates were actually made prior to the holiday" and were announced in a Dec. 19 CSMS message (see 1812190004). There's been some question on tariff classification changes during the shutdown (see 1901040022). The quota branch has been operating during the shutdown and the Jan. 1 quota openings were mostly normal, though Leonard noted that some categories of steel quotas have already opened and closed. Cargo clearance is "for the most part business as usual," said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls. CBP is processing ACH during the shutdown, said Bruce Ingalls, director of the CBP Revenue Division.

The timelines for antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigations under the Enforce and Protect Act will see some delay due to the shutdown, similar to the delays to Commerce Department AD/CV investigations, Leonard said. The EAPA regulations include specific timelines for the investigations (see 1602230080). CBP recommends that anyone involved in an EAPA investigation still try to submit requested information as timely as possible even though the agency's employees working on EAPA are furloughed, said Stephen Hilsen, executive director of CBP's Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate. That would "show the timeliness of the response as we work through the processes," Hilsen said.

An employee from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration also sought some help from CBP about the shutdown during the call. Asked about CBP's ongoing provision of statistical trade information to other agencies, Swanson said that "anybody's who's collecting information directly from CBP, that continues as long as there was an automated link and you're part of" a memorandum of understanding.