A US trade court judge on Wednesday ordered the government to begin paying potentially $130bn in refunds to importers who paid tariffs that the Supreme Court said last month were collected illegally.
Richard Eaton, a judge of the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan, ordered the government to finalise the cost of bringing millions of shipments into the US without assessing a tariff, according to a court filing. He ordered the refunds to be made with interest.
The order by Eaton came in a case brought by Atmus Filtration, which said in court filings it paid about $11m in the illegal tariffs.
Atmus’ lawsuit is among the roughly 2,000 that have been filed with the trade court seeking a refund of the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Eaton said he did not want to have to hear each case. “We want to work out a method by which those importers can make a claim for duties that were unlawfully applied.”
Court Order
Judge Eaton directed Customs and Border Protection to finalize the entry cost on shipments without the tariff being assessed, resulting in a refund.
“Customs knows how to do this,” he told a court hearing on Wednesday, according to a recording on the court’s website. He said the agency should be able to program its system to issue refunds, which are regularly issued when an importer overpays on an estimated duty.
“They do it every day. They liquidate entries and make refunds,” he said.
Eaton also set a hearing for Friday in which he asked for updates on CBP’s refund plans. He said in his order that the court’s chief judge indicated that Eaton is the only judge who will hear tariff refund cases.
The US government collected more than $130bn in illegal tariff payments, which were central to Donald Trump’s trade policy. The supreme court did not provide guidance for issuing refunds, creating confusion over how importers would be reimbursed.
