The Trump administration is preparing to begin issuing refunds on previously collected tariffs by around May 11, according to a filing submitted Tuesday to the U.S. Court of International Trade, marking the first wave of repayments more than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the duties unlawful.

In the court order, Judge Richard Eaton noted that approximately 21 percent of import entries subject to tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) have been approved for duty removal through a newly implemented system known as CAPE, or Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries.

Eaton, who is supervising the refund effort, reported that roughly 3 percent of IEEPA-related entries have already been processed through CAPE and have reached the refund phase, which includes payments being issued by the U.S. Treasury.

The Supreme Court’s Feb. 20 decision, which found that President Donald Trump did not have the authority to impose the tariffs under IEEPA, did not specify how reimbursements should be handled, leaving significant uncertainty surrounding the repayment process.

As of April 26, court documents indicate that about 1.74 million qualifying entries had been finalized and were moving through the refund pipeline.

The total scope of the repayments could be substantial, potentially covering about $166 billion in duties paid by more than 330,000 importers across approximately 53 million entries.

Following the court’s 6–3 ruling against the tariffs, Trump sharply criticized the decision, calling it “terrible” and “totally defective,” and moved quickly to impose a new 10 percent global tariff.

{Matzav.com}