Washington Times Weekly: The tariff bill comes due and everyone wants to collect

I’m George Gerbo and welcome to Washington Times Weekly, where we get a chance to sit down with our reporters and talk about their coverage of the latest news and events. 

Joining me today is National Reporter Tom Howell Jr. 

[GERBO] It’s all about tariffs on this edition of Weekly. Let’s start with the recent Supreme Court ruling 6 to 3 that President Trump’s tariffs exceeded the powers given by Congress. The court saying that Trump overstepped the bounds of IEEPA. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 authorizes the president to use the law to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security or the economy. The president said that trade deficits with multiple countries rose to that level. The Supreme Court said that power had to be explicitly given by Congress. 

So in the aftermath of that, Tom, the president is still proposing what he calls more durable tariffs. What is the definition behind that? What does it look like? The president is saying it could be 10 or 15 percent, a global rate, but it appears that his authority to do that is limited in its duration.

[HOWELL] As other countries would say, it’s a bit of a mess right now because for months, the administration knew this was a distinct possibility. The president said it would be a disaster. But he quickly pivoted and said, “Look, I have other authorities, they’ve been time-tested, and I plan to use them. I’m not gonna retreat from tariffs.” He considers them an amazing tool to gain leverage over other countries. So he’s going to backfill what was cancelled by the court.

There’s a lot of numbers. You’ve got to get used to all these numbers. There’s Section 122, Section 301, Section 232. What he’s doing now, so far, as the media action, was to use something called Section 122 to impose a blanket 10% tariff across the board, across the globe. He said he wants to increase that to 15%. That’s sort of a work in progress. So some countries might see an even higher rate pretty soon. But that’s where we’re at now. A lot of confusion, a lot of countries saying, okay, are terms worse? Better? Where are we here? So that’s kind of the confusing junction we’re at.

[GERBO] You mentioned it being messy. There’s a pretty negative geopolitical consequence for some of the American allies around the world. Canada and France, for example, have increased their relationships with China in recent weeks and months, trying to help backfill their trade needs. Are there other countries on that list of what appears to be growing international rancor and angst about the trade policies that are coming out of the White House?

[HOWELL] I think there’s a lot of frustration that for months they tried to negotiate. They had a threat of a tariff hanging over them, only for it to turn out that the tariff that was being deployed against them is not considered legal anymore. Trump wasn’t really negotiating with a loaded gun, it turns out. And also, there’s a feeling that if you’re Japan, and you committed to hundreds of billions of investments in the U.S. to get a lower rate, only to find out that the country next to you is going to have the same blanket rate, you say “What did we do that for?” 

So I think there’s kind of a feeling of fundamental unfairness. And now countries are kind of sitting tight. And they said: Okay, you make the next move. You show us clarity. You show what you want to do. And then we’ll figure out how we keep this deal together or if we have to make a hardline decision and say, no, we’re not going to do this.

[GERBO] And the final part of this, Tom, is the companies now that we’re seeing, as you’ve written about, are starting to say, hey, if there’s no tariffs or these tariffs are illegal, then maybe the money that we paid into them should be returned to us, foremost among them, recently FedEx filing a lawsuit, the major international shipping based out of Memphis. They are saying that they should get refunds on their tariffs. Costco is another company. They submitted a lawsuit prior to the Supreme Court decision, but they also are in on that same thought that, hey, if we’ve paid into these now and they’re no longer considered legal, that we should get refunds from them.

Customs and Border Protection estimated $200 billion in tariffs collected last year in 2025. I’m sure we’ll see more companies trying to take this similar line and file suits and petition the government to get their money back. How realistic is it that they could be issued refunds for what they’ve already paid in and money that potentially has already been spent as well?

[HOWELL] The argument is clear that, you know, if you collect something from us that turns out to be unlawful, we should get it back, you know, it’s kind of like if you rob a bank, you know, and it turns out of it turns out of lawful. That’s kind of their argument. I think some of the critics of people seeking refunds would say, well, you passed costs along, you raised costs on consumers and now you want the refund for that money still. So that’s some of the complaint about it. But the Supreme Court didn’t really offer a lot of guidance in its opinion. They just remand it and send it back down to a lower court. So they’re going to hash it out. I don’t think anyone really knows what that’s going to look like. Trump himself didn’t seem in a rush to give the money back. He said it’s going to be litigation. I’m probably going to take months. So we’ll see. 

FedEx was the biggest company to file after the ruling, but others had lined up beforehand. Costco notably, Bumblebee Foods, they make like the tin tuna and things. I saw estimates around 1,800 companies that filed lawsuits in the Court of International Trade. So a lot of people lining up, they seem to think that it shouldn’t be that hard to issue refunds with modern technology from Customs. But, yeah, it’s wrapped up in the courts. We’ll see.

[GERBO] Affordability and the economy, two key pieces of what will be a hotly contested midterm season this year in 2026. And we know the tariffs are going to be a key part of that and that you’ll be keeping tabs on it for us, Tom. 

Click here for more from Tom Howell Jr.

Read more: 

• Trump tariff agenda tripped up by Supreme Court decision
  
  
• Senate Democrats tell Treasury to refund tariff money immediately
  
  
• FedEx says it will return to customers any refunds it gets back from Trump’s illegal tariffs
  
  
• Editorial: Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs
  
  
• Trump team outlines plans for ‘durable’ tariffs without Congress

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