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Last April, President Donald Trump declared \u201cLiberation Day\u201d in imposing new tariffs.<\/p>\n
Nearly one year later, many American businesses are feeling anything but liberated, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> Tuesday (March 31).<\/p>\n As that report noted, companies of all sizes are grappling with uncertainty surrounding when or if they will get their share of refunds from the $166 billion the administration collected, a process later deemed illegal<\/a> by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Upwards of 3,000 lawsuits have been filed against the government in the Court of International Trade by businesses hoping for a refund. While some of these plaintiffs include high-profile companies<\/a> like CVS<\/a> and Costco<\/a>, most are small businesses.<\/p>\n Other companies can\u2019t afford to go to court, the report added. Among them is Endless Pens<\/a>, a Florida-based luxury online retailer waiting on refunds of the $175,000 in tariffs it paid on imports. If that refund doesn\u2019t arrive by July, the company could have to declare bankruptcy, owner Keval Kantaria told the WSJ.<\/p>\n We\u2019d love to be your preferred source for news<\/a>.<\/p>\n Please add us to your preferred sources list so our news, data and interviews show up in your feed. Thanks!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve come to a cash flow crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have enough cash to buy any new inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement: Scroll to Continue<\/p>\n<\/div>\n White House officials have said in court that it could take the government up to 4.4 million hours<\/a> to manually process the various refund requests, but noted that computer upgrades designed to speed that effort could be ready by mid-April, substantially reducing the 4.4 million estimate.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote<\/a> earlier this month about another lesson for businesses offered by the tariffs<\/a>. Many companies, the report said, have not fully allowed suppliers to provide the structured data and documentation needed to substantiate complex trade claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coming tariff refund wave may, as a result, become an unexpected stress test for supplier enablement,\u201d that report said. \u201cThe companies that recover tariff money fastest may be the ones that already solved a broader B2B challenge: enabling suppliers to deliver structured compliance data on demand.\u201d<\/p>\n With no centralized system for supplier documentation in place, the need to submit effective and compliant refund claims can soon become a manual and time-consuming effort and ultimately lead to lost recoveries, the report added.<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies that can quickly assemble the necessary supplier records may be able to file claims earlier and resolve them faster,\u201d PYMNTS wrote. \u201cThose that cannot may find themselves racing to collect documentation from suppliers months after the original transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n