Commentary: The feds are issuing tariff refunds to big companies, but you still shouldn't expect a check
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Set us as preferred Back in February, hours after the Supreme Court overturned most of President Trump’s tariffs, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joshed about whether consumers would get a piece of the refunds when the government refunded the illegal duties.Responding to a question about that at an economics conference, Bessent stated — with “a condescending smirk,” I reported at the time — “I get a feeling the American people won’t see it.”Now that the refunds have begun, with hundreds of millions of dollars — in some cases more than a billion — going out to major retailers and manufacturers, we can test Bessent’s conclusion against reality.As it turns out, and to no one’s real surprise, he had a point.We are not the importer of record for the large majority of items....given suppliers typically handle imports and pay relevant tariffs.— Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky explains why Amazon won’t be cutting tariff refund checks to most customersBig companies have been exceedingly cagey about how they’re going to spend the refunded money.
But sending checks to customers who paid higher prices because of the tariffs doesn’t seem to be in the offing.Some companies have implied that they might reduce prices, but they haven’t been very specific.
The closest any has come to clarity may be Walmart, whose top executives told investors in May that they had instituted price “rollbacks” on 7,200 items, 20% more than last year.Although they said they would devote the refund to “price investment,” which sounds like lowering prices.
They said the wholesale prices on some incoming merchandise were lower than they were during the tariff period and therefore customers would pay less.Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.
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