Federal trade judge orders Trump administration to start refunding $130B in tariffs
A federal trade judge ordered the Trump administration to begin refunding more than $130 billion in tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the levies last month.Judge Richard Eaton of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade issued a written order Wednesday directing the government to begin refunding importers.Eaton ordered US Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds by calculating the total duties importers paid and factoring in the tariffs recently struck down by the Supreme Court.The White House was expected to appeal the order, preventing it from taking effect immediately.The Post has sought comment from the White House.The Court of International Trade on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to delay lawsuits seeking tariffs refunds, which could pave the way for firms to get back cash they previously paid for the levies.Prior to Wednesday’s ruling, Justice Department lawyer Claudia Burke told Eaton the Trump administration had yet to take a formal position on tariff refunds, according to the Wall Street Journal.At that point, Eaton grew impatient, telling Burke: “Your position is clear.
The Supreme Court told you what your position is.”Burke said that the process of refunding tariffs would be time-consuming for CBP since the agency would have to manually go through millions of import entries.“We live in the age of computers,” Eaton said.“It must be possible for Customs Service to program its computers so it doesn’t need a manual review.”More than 2,000 lawsuits have been filed by companies seeking to recoup the tariffs, including major firms such as Costco, FedEx and Pandora Jewelry.Nunzio De Filippis, a customs broker, said he has been inundated with calls from clients but cautioned that Eaton’s order doesn’t guarantee refunds yet.“The courts still need to figure out the mechanics of how this actually gets unwound,” De Filippis said.
“My message to the trade community is to chill out.There’s still a ...