The US Court of International Trade is pressing the Trump administration to speed up tariff refunds of billions of dollars to thousands of importers, following a partial roll-out after the US Supreme Court struck down its global tariffs in February.
“The time has come to refund all the duties,” said Judge Richard Eaton on Tuesday, adding that the delay is leading to a “growing inequity” between big importers and small businesses.
The judge did not issue any new order but noted that the government’s recent decision to challenge his earlier directive to refund “any and all” tariffs collected under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is resulting in delays.
Appearing before the court, Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) executive assistant commissioner for trade, Susan Thomas, said that the agency planned to refund the remaining tariffs at a later date.
“We can’t do it all at once,” Thomas told the court.
According to the CBP, of the estimated US$166 billion collected under the now-illegal tariffs, the agency has accepted and begun processing roughly US$90 billion in claims. Around US$23 billion has already been processed under phase one, with total planned refunds expected to reach US$127 billion by the end of the process.
For the remaining balance, the administration has argued it will not return levies already finalised under “liquidation” – the process by which the agency settles the final tariff amount after an importer pays an estimated tax at entry.
The CBP had earlier asserted that it would only return those liquidated tariffs in specific circumstances or if importers individually went to court, which could pose legal hurdles for smaller importers.
Judge Eaton, who termed Tuesday’s hearing “settlement negotiations”, had earlier ordered the head of the CBP, Rodney Scott, to appear before the court personally, but later dropped the demand after the US Justice Department secured a stay on the order from the US Court of Appeals.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Trump’s IEEPA tariffs, Judge Eaton took oversight of all refund litigation. In April, he ordered the administration to return “any and all” levies collected under the statute.
The Justice Department disputed the order and moved the US Court of Appeals last week, arguing that the Court of International Trade “lacks the equitable power to issue universal injunctions that bind the government.”
But the plaintiffs, V.O.S. Selections, a group representing five small-business importers, have rejected the government’s claim, arguing the Supreme Court decision made it clear that “everyone who paid the IEEPA tariffs is entitled to a refund.”
On June 4, they filed a motion in trade court seeking to launch a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all importers excluded from the CBP’s phase one payouts. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
