Trump administration pays back $100bn

The Trump administration said it has refunded about $100 billion in tariff revenue collected under President Donald Trump’s 2025 “Liberation Day” duties, according to a court filing reported on August 5. The payments follow a February Supreme Court ruling that Trump could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose those tariffs. The filing said the refunds account for roughly 60% of the about $166 billion the government collected before the duties were struck down. Canadian exporters are separately expecting about C$10 billion in refunds tied to the same tariff regime, even as Ottawa and Washington remain in active trade talks and fresh U.S. tariff threats remain on the table. ### Where did the $100 billion figure come from? A Tuesday filing in the U.S. Court of International Trade said about $100 billion had been completed, certified and sent to the Treasury Department for disbursement as of July 31. CNBC reported the figure from the filing and said it represented about 60% of the roughly $166 billion collected under the IEEPA tariffs. (cnbc.com) U.S. Customs and Border Protection official Brandon Lord said in that filing that nearly $129 billion in “both potential and certified refunds” had been accepted for processing. Lord said the agency’s CAPE system had received 252,496 refund declarations covering more than 25 million import entries by July 31. ### Why did the government have to return the money? (cnbc.com) The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026, that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs, according to the Tax Foundation’s summary of the decision. That ruling invalidated the “Liberation Day” tariffs and returned the case to the Court of International Trade to address refunds. CNBC reported that Senior Judge Richard Eaton later ordered that tariffs collected under IEEPA be refunded to importers. (cnbc.com) The same report said CBP rolled out the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, system in late April to track and deliver those refunds. ### Who is actually getting paid back? Importers that paid the duties are the legal parties entitled to refunds because U.S. tariffs are taxes on imported goods purchased by importers in the United States, the Tax Foundation said. (taxfoundation.org) That means the refunds go first to the businesses that remitted the tariffs, not automatically to downstream buyers or consumers. (cnbc.com) Freestyle World, a California-based importer, is separately seeking to mount a class action on behalf of smaller businesses that say they face barriers getting refunds through CAPE, CNBC reported. Trade-law coverage in July said more than 3,700 cases seeking IEEPA tariff refunds were pending before the Court of International Trade and that Freestyle World had become a lead case for issues involving entries that had already become final. (taxfoundation.org) ### Why are Canadian exporters talking about another C$10 billion? National Post reported on August 5 that Canadian exporters were expecting refunds on roughly C$10 billion tied to tariffs that had been judged illegal. The paper said the United States had taken in more than $160 billion in gross revenue under the broader tariff program, linking the Canadian claims to the same court-driven unwind of the IEEPA duties. (cnbc.com) CBC reported this week that Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc was back in Washington for another round of meetings as the latest U.S. tariff threat sat just over two weeks away. The Globe and Mail separately reported that Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada was ready to “get tougher” if no trade deal is reached and that he hoped to get Trump’s sectoral tariffs dealt with before August 19. (nationalpost.com) ### Can Trump still impose new tariffs after the refunds? Trump said in a Fox News interview on August 4 that “tariffs have been incredible” and that, after the Supreme Court setback, his administration was “allowed to do it in a different manner,” according to CNBC. The same report said the administration has already taken steps to recreate parts of the IEEPA tariff regime using other legal authorities, and those moves are facing separate court challenges. (cbc.ca) The Tax Foundation said the Supreme Court ruling left other tariff authorities intact, including Section 232 tariffs. Carney said Canada wants all of Trump’s sectoral tariffs addressed before the August 19 deadline, while LeBlanc and Canadian negotiators remain in Washington for further talks. (taxfoundation.org) (cnbc.com)