Trump plans to appeal order on US tariff refunds
U.S. businesses large and small began receiving tariff refunds after the United States Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump lacks the constitutional authority to impose higher import duties on goods from nearly all other countries.
But the process could come to a halt after the Trump administration said Friday it plans to appeal a federal judge’s decision that allows any company that paid invalid taxes to seek refunds, not just those who filed lawsuits.
The reimbursement system, overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was working fairly smoothly until the Justice Department notified the judge of its planned appeal.
According to CBP, the refunds arrived in the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12, about three weeks after importers and customs brokers began submitting requests through an online system.
Refund applications totaling $85 billion ($118 billion) — more than half of the $166 billion the agency estimates the government owes to companies that pay tariffs on imported goods — were accepted for processing as of May 22, CBP reported in a regulatory filing earlier in the week.
So far, the Treasury Department has been directed to refund $20.6 billion, he said.
The administration announced its appeal preparations as it objects to Judge Richard K Eaton’s request that CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott appear before the U.S. Court of International Trade to answer questions about how long it would take to refund the 330,000 importers who may be eligible for refunds.
The judge scheduled a hearing for June 9 on why he shouldn’t require the government to do whatever is necessary to speed up the process.
Justice Department lawyers asked Eaton to allow one or two of Scott’s aides to appear in his place, arguing that the CBP chief, as a senior presidential appointee, cannot be forced to testify in court.
They also argued that Eaton overstepped its authority in March when it found that the Supreme Court’s decision entitled “all registered importers” to refunds.
“Therefore, defendants plan to appeal the court’s universal injunction,” the attorneys wrote, adding that CBP will continue to move “as quickly as possible to process refunds in a phased approach” for businesses that have filed 485 pending commercial court complaints to claim refund rights.
In his brief response Friday, Eaton said he needed to hear directly from Scott whether the government would return all the money it collected between when Trump imposed “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries in April 2025 and when the Supreme Court struck down those tariffs in late February.
“This case involves $166 billion,” the judge wrote.
“It is undisputed that the remedy for this unlawful collection is for the US government to refund the illegally collected taxes.”
Some U.S. retail chains have said they plan to use tariff rebates to lower customer prices on some products.
John David Rainey, Walmart’s chief financial officer, told analysts last week that the company would impose price cuts even though the maximum refund it could receive represents less than half of one percent of Walmart’s $483 billion in annual U.S. sales.
Some smaller companies told The Associated Press that the partial refunds they have received so far will go toward paying remaining or future tariffs, reducing debt or simply keeping the lights on after more than a year of uncertainty and additional import costs.
