Federal trade court quiet

The federal trade court has gone quiet for now, even as the tariff fight keeps moving through Washington and customs systems. (cit.uscourts.gov) The latest major action at the U.S. Court of International Trade came on April 10, when a three-judge panel heard challenges to President Donald Trump’s 10% global tariff imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Reuters reported the tariffs took effect on February 24 and were challenged by 24 mostly Democratic-led states and by small businesses. (usnews.com) As of April 17, the court’s public opinions pages still showed only the general 2026 slip-opinions index, not a new tariff ruling tied to that April 10 hearing. The court’s public proceedings page says upcoming hearings are listed there, but no fresh tariff decision was posted in the sources reviewed. (cit.uscourts.gov 1) (cit.uscourts.gov 2) The legal backdrop is unusually crowded because the Supreme Court, on February 20, struck down Trump’s earlier tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Oregon’s Department of Justice says that case began in April 2025, reached the Supreme Court after Federal Circuit review, and ended with the IEEPA tariffs invalidated. (doj.state.or.us) That ruling did not end the tariff fight. It pushed the administration to a different statute, Section 122, which allows temporary tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days to address serious balance-of-payments problems, according to Reuters’ April 10 account of the court hearing. (usnews.com) At that hearing, judges pressed government lawyers on whether a modern trade deficit is the same thing Congress meant by a “balance of payments deficit” in 1974. Reuters reported Judge Timothy Stanceu said the court was “not quite sure how to translate 1974 into 2026,” while a Justice Department lawyer argued the U.S. trade gap contributes to a broader international-payments problem. (usnews.com) While the court has not issued a new ruling in that Section 122 case, the government has been working on the financial fallout from the earlier Supreme Court loss. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an April 14 court filing that it completed the first phase of CAPE, the refund system for importers seeking repayment of tariffs the Supreme Court struck down. (usnews.com) That filing said the CAPE system is scheduled to launch on April 20 and is meant to combine refunds into one electronic payment, with interest when applicable. Reuters reported that, as of April 9, 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive electronic refunds tied to $127 billion in tariffs, out of roughly $166 billion at issue. (usnews.com) Customs officials also told the court that more than 330,000 importers paid the invalidated tariffs on 53 million shipments, and that some entries worth $2.9 billion may still require manual processing. That helps explain why the court docket can look still even when the tariff fight is shifting into refunds, administration, and a second round of legal argument. (usnews.com) So the story this week is not a fresh trade-court ruling but a pause between hearings and decisions. The Court of International Trade remains the forum for the new tariff challenge, while the practical consequences of the old one start showing up in refund payments and customs filings. (cit.uscourts.gov) (usnews.com)