Trade Court Orders Government to Refund $130 Billion in Tariffs

The U.S. government must begin refunding the $130 billion it collected in tariffs that were later determined by the Supreme Court to be illegal, a federal trade court judge ruled Wednesday (March 4), according to multiple media reports.

Judge Richard Eaton at the Court of International Trade ordered the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin the process of refunding importers and to provide an update at a Friday (March 6) hearing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

When the Supreme Court issued its decision that the tariffs were illegal, it did not address whether the money already collected should be repaid. That left the decision to the trade court, according to the report.

The trade court’s order requires CBP to recalculate the duties paid by importers, leaving out the tariffs voided by the Supreme Court, per the report.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the trade court’s order, the report said.

In the month since the Supreme Court ruling, more than 2,000 lawsuits have been filed by companies seeking refunds, per the report.

Eaton said Wednesday that he has been assigned to handle all of the lawsuits filed in the trade court that seek refunds and that he believes the refunds can be handled “pretty smoothly,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The company that filed the lawsuit in which Eaton delivered his order, Nashville, Tennessee-based Atmus Filtration, is seeking $11 million in refunds, according to the report.

Eaton said during the hearing that “every single cent of IEEPA duties that was imposed must be refunded,” per the report. IEEPA, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, is the law that President Donald Trump cited when imposing the tariffs.

The government said earlier Wednesday in a court filing in this case that if it is required to make refunds, it will pay interest on those refunds, according to the report.

Reuters reported Wednesday that more than 300,000 importers paid the tariffs and are now hoping that CBP adopts a simple procedure for handling the refunds.

When the Supreme Court announced its ruling in February, it said IEEPA does not authorize a president to impose tariffs. While IEEPA grants a president broad tools to regulate foreign commerce, the Constitution assigns Congress the authority to impose tariffs, the court said.

It was reported Feb. 22, shortly after that decision, that businesses remained uncertain because the decision did not resolve the question of whether tariff refunds would happen.