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The Trump administration will enter its initial steps toward refunding over 166 billion of tariffs previously collected and subsequently invalidated in February—barely a year after most of the levies were instituted—yielding its cash cow, with interest on the spot. 

At 8 p.m. ET on April 20, US Customs and Border Protection announced the initial step in a new system of claims, the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, which allows importers to repay tariffs imposed pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), in response to a run of court decisions since 2005 that invalidated the policy.

Wall Street analysts are making huge refunding projections to blue-chip retailers. Citi estimates Walmart is owed $10.2 billion, Target is owed $2.2 billion, and, according to a Citi estimate issued on April 10, Nike might receive back 1 billion dollars.

CBP added that valid refunds would be made in between 60 and 90 days, on average, following the acceptance of a claim, but more complicated cases can take longer. Nevertheless, the way to repayment is not always secure. Trade attorneys are cautioning that legal challenges to overcome, red tape, and last-minute Trump administration scramble await, and importers are not hopeful that the administration will offer an easy way out. 

Monday is only the initial step to the refunds, and therefore not all goods imported under the unlawful tariffs can be eligible at once. US Customs has approximated that in the first phase, most of the imports that were affected would have been addressed. 

Over 3,000 companies, such as FedEx and Costco, have already sued the Trump administration in their attempt to attain their refunds. Nonetheless, analysts say the repayments will not repair the entire damage, since the layoffs and cuts companies had to make imply that they are not going to get whole.