After initially accepting requests from importers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to defer payment of duties – a means of relief that the Trump administration had reportedly been considering – US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued guidance withdrawing this option.

As individuals and businesses face the growing health and economic crisis stemming from the global COVID-19 outbreak, the government has searched for balanced ways to provide relief to those struggling, and trade measures are no exception. On 20 March 2020 CBP issued a Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) message that it would accept requests temporarily to defer the payment on imported goods of estimated duties, taxes and fees, which are ordinarily due upon entry, on a case-by-case basis (for more details please see "COVID-19 trade update: potential duty payment deferrals and border shutdowns").

However, on 26 March 2020 CBP abruptly backtracked on the proposal notifying the trade via CSMS that it would no longer accept requests for duty deferral on the basis of the pandemic. Earlier reports had stated, although officials have denied it, that President Trump has been debating a 90-day duty deferral option for importers, while a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been pushing the administration for various trade actions to address the economic impact of COVID-19 on Americans, including duty deferral.

On 25 March 2020 12 Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee led by Chair Chuck Grassley sent a letter to the administration, writing that "a duty deferral would be a commonsense way to improve the liquidity of our businesses during this time of economic disruption". On 26 March 2020 Senior Senator for California Diane Feinstein and Junior Senator for Pennsylvania Pat Toomey wrote to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on behalf of five other senators and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a representative for California, stating that "the Treasury Department should direct that all tariffs will be deferred for at least 90 days and, more broadly, until the companies paying them can emerge from the ongoing crisis". Both letters cite the recent deferral of internal revenue tax payments.

The CBP notice reminds the trade industry that CBP will continue to consider deferrals in narrow circumstances, including a physical inability to file entry or make payments due to technology outages or port closures.