The Trump administration said Sunday it is in no rush to issue refunds to companies that paid the tariffs nullified by a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
U.S. businesses challenged Mr. Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs. They won Friday, unleashing a scramble to secure refunds for the money they paid to U.S. customs under that law.
Still, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to commit the administration to refunds. He said the Supreme Court opinion merely unleashed a new legal fight.
“The Supreme Court remanded it down to a lower court, and we will follow what they say, but that could be weeks or months when we hear them,” Mr. Bessent told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Estimates from private and government sources place the potential refund amount in the $130 billion to $175 billion range.
Businesses said they fully expected to be repaid — and fast.
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“We are confident in Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) ability to move quickly and provide clear guidance to American businesses on how to obtain refunds for tariffs that were unlawfully collected,” said Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association.
The apparel and footwear industries rely heavily on imports, especially goods from Southeast Asia.
Mr. Lamar said CPB’s “recently modernized, fully electronic refund process should help to expedite this effort.”
Tariffs are duties on foreign goods when they are brought into the U.S. and must be paid by the importer of record — often an American entity.
Major companies such as Costco filed lawsuits ahead of the Supreme Court decision to bolster their legal claims in case the justices ruled against Mr. Trump.
“More than 2,000 lawsuits have already been brought seeking such refunds, but this is a small fraction of U.S. importers that may be entitled to such refunds,” said Dave Townsend, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney’s International Trade Group who has been tracking the case. “The United States has said in litigation that more than 300,000 U.S. importers have paid IEEPA tariffs.”
The justices did not specify how refunds should be processed, though some justices acknowledged it might be messy.
“The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said in a dissenting opinion.
“Refunds of billions of dollars would have significant consequences for the U.S. Treasury,” the justice added. “The court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers.”
Mr. Trump, speaking at a White House briefing Friday, predicted a lengthy court fight over refunds. He cited the court’s lack of direction.
“Wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying, ‘Keep the money or don’t keep the money?’” Mr. Trump said. “I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.
“They don’t even talk about it,” Mr. Trump said.
Economists say the situation is messy in part because it is so unusual.
“Refunds to the companies who paid these tariffs would be unprecedented in the sense that levying unauthorized taxes on the American people is unprecedented. However, since the administration had no authority to impose these tariffs, it follows that the businesses deserve a refund,” said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in economics at the Pacific Research Institute.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hailed the ruling as especially helpful to smaller firms that have struggled under the tariff costs.
“Over the past year, the Chamber has been working with small and midsize businesses around the country that have seen significant cost increases and supply chain disruptions as a result of these tariffs. Swift refunds of the impermissible tariffs will be meaningful for the more than 200,000 small business importers in this country and will help support stronger economic growth this year.”
The National Retail Federation called for a “seamless” refund process.
“The refunds will serve as an economic boost and allow companies to reinvest in their operations, their employees and their customers,” said David French, the retail trade association’s executive vice president of government relations.
U.S. stocks surged after the ruling, a sign that investors saw Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs as a drag on businesses. Some of Mr. Trump’s Republican allies in Congress want to maintain the levies by codifying them into law.
Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio said Republicans should pass the tariffs into law through a budget reconciliation bill that would get around a Democratic filibuster.
Select Republicans and Democrats, however, have opposed Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs as a blunt instrument that raised costs on Americans.
They want the administration to return the money.
“Trump bet his economic agenda on an illegal power grab and lost,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat. “It is a moral obligation for this administration to return every last cent taken from small businesses by this illegal tax.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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