A US trade court judge has ordered the government to begin repaying billions of dollars in tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled were illegally collected. Judge Richard Eaton of the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan directed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to finalise the cost of importing millions of shipments without assessing the tariff, resulting in refunds with interest.
The tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), were central to Donald Trump's trade policy and generated more than $130bn in payments. The Supreme Court did not provide guidance on issuing refunds, leading to confusion over reimbursement.
Judge Eaton said during a court hearing that CBP should be able to program its system to issue refunds, a routine process when importers overpay estimated duties. “They do it every day. They liquidate entries and make refunds,” he stated, according to a court recording.
CBP has argued that the task is unprecedented in scale, potentially requiring manual review of over 70 million entries. The agency had requested up to four months to assess its options. However, Eaton set a hearing for Friday to receive updates on refund plans.
The order came in a case brought by Atmus Filtration, which paid about $11m in illegal tariffs. Atmus is among roughly 2,000 lawsuits filed seeking refunds. More than 300,000 importers paid the tariffs, many of them smaller businesses hoping for a simple reimbursement process to avoid costly litigation.
