Trump to appeal tariff refund order

The Trump administration said on May 29 that it would appeal a federal judge’s order allowing all companies that paid invalidated Trump tariffs to seek refunds, widening a fight that has already moved from the Supreme Court back into the U.S. (ttnews.com) Court of International Trade. The appeal targets an order by Judge Richard Eaton that said the Supreme Court’s February ruling entitled “all importers of record” to refunds, not only the businesses that filed lawsuits. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already begun processing payments, and some importers started receiving money in May. The new appeal now puts the scope and pace of those repayments back into dispute. ### Which order is the administration appealing? Judge Richard Eaton is overseeing the refund process in the Court of International Trade in New York, where importers have been pressing the government to repay duties collected under President Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Justice Department lawyers said Eaton exceeded his authority when he concluded that the Supreme Court’s ruling required refunds for all importers of record. The May 29 filing said the government intended to appeal Eaton’s “universal injunction” while continuing to process refunds in what it called a phased approach for businesses that filed legal complaints asserting their refund rights. (ttnews.com) The administration also objected to Eaton’s demand that CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott appear in court on June 9. ### What did the Supreme Court decide in February? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Feb. 20 that Trump unlawfully used IEEPA to impose broad tariffs on goods entering the country. The decision struck down the legal basis for the global tariff program but did not resolve how refunds should be handled, leaving that question to lower courts. (ttnews.com) More than 2,000 tariff lawsuits were filed after the case reached the justices, with most brought in the trade court in New York. On March 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the administration’s request to keep the refund fight paused for months longer and sent the case back for further proceedings. (ttnews.com) ### How far had the refund process gotten before this appeal? U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched its online refund portal on April 20 to handle claims tied to what the government has estimated is $166 billion in unlawful duties. Refund payments began reaching some importers by May 6, according to trade lawyers, and CBP said the first successful applicants saw money hit their bank accounts on May 12. (ttnews.com) As of May 11, CBP said it was processing more than $35.5 billion in refunds across more than 8 million import entries. By May 22, the agency had accepted applications totaling $85 billion and had directed Treasury to issue $20.6 billion, according to a later court filing. (ttnews.com) ### Why had refunds already been moving slowly? CBP told the court in April that only about 20% of roughly 300,000 eligible firms had completed a required step to receive electronic payments. Brandon Lord, executive director of trade programs in CBP’s Office of Trade, said importers had to request refunds through a new portal and opt in to an existing payment system. (ttnews.com) The April 29 court update said only about 21% of import entries subject to the invalidated tariffs had been accepted for duty removal at that stage, and several million entries had been rejected during validation. Customs said importers could fix errors and refile, but it also warned that the first phase of the system could not accept claims for more than a third of the 53 million import entries at issue. (ttnews.com) ### What happens next in court? A June 9 hearing in the Court of International Trade is set to focus on how long it will take to repay as many as 330,000 importers that may be eligible for refunds and whether the court should require the government to speed up the process. (ttnews.com) Justice Department lawyers have asked Eaton to let Scott’s deputies appear instead of the CBP commissioner, arguing that a high-ranking presidential appointee cannot be compelled to testify. The appeal will now run alongside that lower-court fight over timing, eligibility and administration of the refund program, with CBP and Treasury still processing claims already in the system. (ttnews.com 1) (ttnews.com 2)