Court orders tariff refunds

WASHINGTON, March 5 (EOBS) — A U.S. trade court judge ordered Customs and Border Protection to begin refunding importers for tariffs the Supreme Court last month said were illegally collected, a ruling that sets the refund process in motion for Trump-era duties.

Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan directed CBP to finalize entry costs without assessing the tariff, a step that CNBC, The Guardian, and NBC News said will result in refunds.

Refunds tied to Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and Eaton wrote that importers subject to those duties are entitled to the benefit of that ruling, a point echoed by PYMNTS and The Guardian.

The government collected more than $130 billion from the now-invalid tariffs, a figure cited by CNBC, BBC News, and PYMNTS, underscoring the scale of the refunds.

How the refund process works

Under the customs “liquidation” process, importers pay estimated duties when goods enter the U.S., and CBP later finalizes the amount; Eaton ordered those entries to be finalized without the tariff, as described by Reuters, CNBC, The Guardian, and NBC News.

Eaton said he will handle the refund docket and set a Friday hearing for updates on CBP’s plan, according to Reuters, CNBC, BBC News, and PYMNTS.

Case that triggered the order

The order arose from a lawsuit by Atmus Filtration of Tennessee, which said it paid about $11 million in the tariffs, a detail reported by Reuters, CNBC, The Guardian, and PYMNTS.

The trade-court order, following the Supreme Court decision, sets a uniform path for refunds across importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, a linkage noted across Reuters, CNBC, BBC News, and The Guardian.

Additional Details Reported

Additional reporting said CBP warned the refund task could require manual review of more than 70 million entries and is unprecedented in scale (Reuters; The Guardian; CNBC); NBC News cited a Penn Wharton estimate that refunds could reach $175 billion (NBC News); PYMNTS and Reuters said roughly 2,000 lawsuits have been filed seeking refunds (PYMNTS; Reuters); and BBC News reported Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a 15% global tariff could replace the invalidated levies (BBC News).

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