Trump administration refunded about $100 billion in tariffs after the US Supreme Court struck down duties. The refunds, over half of $166 billion collected, went to corporate importers, not households
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DETAILS:
- The court filing in the US Court of International Trade said that “refunds (duties plus interest) of approximately $100 billion have been completed using the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries Refund component, certified by the agency, and sent to the US Department of the Treasury for disbursement.”
- The amount as of the end of July was noted in Tuesday’s filing by US customs officials.
- It represented more than half of $166 billion collected in tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down in February.
- Trump has made tariffs a central pillar of his foreign and trade policies despite criticism from some analysts and legal setbacks.
- Critics have complained that the refunds have not reached households but have instead gone to corporate importers.
- “Trump is sending the ‘refunds’ to the companies, not working people. Every single cent of these refunds should go back to American consumers,”
- Democratic Congressman Greg Casar said this week.
- The Supreme Court ruled against most of Trump’s widest-ranging tariffs on February 20, finding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorise the president to unilaterally impose tariffs on goods imported from trading partners.
- Trump responded to that ruling by escalating his trade campaign, calling Supreme Court justices “disloyal” and issuing new temporary 10% tariffs under a different legal authority that, like IEEPA, no president had previously used to impose tariffs.
- The president then issued another round of global tariffs imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is meant to combat unfair or discriminatory economic practices by other nations.
US President Donald Trump had no time for lengthy tariff investigations when he returned to office last year, wanting to hammer trading partners right away to wring concessions.
What followed was a chaotic start to a trade agenda that was eventually upended by a stinging Supreme Court defeat this year. Now he and his team are moving into a new phase to build a more durable US tariff wall using more traditional and court-tested trade laws, those he had little patience for 18 months ago.
Trump’s new anti-forced labour duties imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the unfair trade practices statute used against China during his first term, almost directly replace a global 10% temporary tariff that expired on Friday. They cover 99.4% of U.S. imports, the US Trade Representative’s office said.Also Read: RBI policy: The expected, the pleasant and the puzzling