After Supreme Court Ruling, Tariff Refund Battle Just Beginning

The Trump administration will pay interest on refunds for global tariffs if ordered to do so, according to a court filing on Wednesday.

U.S. officials have not committed to full refunds on the money collected from tariffs, as President Donald Trump has said he would find other laws to continue his tariffs. However, litigation and negotiations are continuing on multiple fronts. 

This comes less than two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a national emergency law, to impose tariffs.

Brandon Lord, executive director of the trade programs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, wrote in the filing with the U.S. Court of International Trade, “In accordance with applicable law, any validated refund of IEEPA duties would include interest.”

Since Trump imposed the tariffs in a “liberation day” announcement, the U.S. government has collected about $170 billion in tariffs, according to Bloomberg News. 

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, determined that the Trump administration could owe about $700 million to foreign companies exporting goods into the United States.