Cargo containers are staged near cranes at the Port of Tacoma in Washington.
Ted S. Warren/AP
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Ted S. Warren/AP
U.S. customs officials say they’re working on a system to deliver tariff refunds, and they hope it’ll be up and running within 45 days.
Since the Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump’s tariffs last month, the companies that paid those import taxes have wondered when and how they would get their money back.
Many small business owners have been worried about having to file individual lawsuits to get their refunds because lawyers have suggested that might be the case. Those fears aren’t unfounded given that Trump and other administration officials have repeatedly suggested that the refund process could get bogged down in litigation.
On Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told the U.S. Court of International Trade that the agency’s computer system is not equipped to immediately process the crush of refunds, but that it’s working on a streamlined process that would not require importers to file individual lawsuits.
The agency expects it will use the same electronic portal that importers already rely on to track or correct their customs filings.
The government estimates that it’s collected some $166 billion from more than 330,000 businesses in tariffs that the Supreme Court has now found unconstitutional.
“The law is clear,” said Judge Richard Eaton of the Court of International Trade. “The duties were unlawful from the moment they were imposed. And that means that every single cent must be returned to the importer.”
On Wednesday, Eaton ordered U.S. Customs to begin refunding tariffs immediately and with interest. He also told the agency to provide an update on Friday.
Earlier this week, an appeals court rejected a Justice Department request to pause the process for 90 days. During the Supreme Court litigation, the Justice Department had given repeated assurances that if the tariffs were struck down, the money would be returned. That’s why the government was allowed to keep collecting the tariffs for months after a lower court ruled them to be illegal last May.
“They said, ‘There is no harm, because we can always refund the money.’ And they even included ‘with interest,'” says Sara Albrecht, who heads the Liberty Justice Center that took the tariff case to the Supreme Court. “To me it’s pretty clear that they don’t have a lot of room to argue that they can’t pay refunds.”
