Tariff refunds won't come for weeks, Trump admin tells Clinton-appointed judge

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Supreme Court ‘achieved nothing but chaos’ with tariff ruling, Mark Levin says

 Fox News host Mark Levin discusses the Supreme Court ruling on President Trump’s tariffs and the U.S.’ relationship with Iran on ‘Life, Liberty and Levin.’

The Trump administration told a court on Friday that it needed about six weeks to come up with a system to begin the refund process for President Donald Trump's tariffs that the Supreme Court recently invalidated.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official made the revelation in a declaration to the U.S. Court of International Trade, saying the agency could not immediately comply with a federal judge's order to begin the refund process.

The agency is staring down at least 53 million refunds totaling $166 billion, according to the official, and that it needed the extra time to work out a way to process them. Building an automated system would save roughly four million hours of work, the official said, noting the "unprecedented magnitude" of the refund process.

CBP's "existing administrative procedures and technology are not well suited to a task of this scale," which currently would "prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s trade enforcement mission," the official wrote. He said he was "confident" the agency could come up with a more streamlined process in the coming weeks.

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President Donald Trump shows off non-reciprocal tariff examples. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)

The declaration comes after Judge Richard Eaton, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, laid out the multibillion-dollar refund process in a three-page order, saying it would begin with CBP calculating what importers would have paid without the tariffs. Eaton also made clear he had sole jurisdiction over the refunds, which more than 1,000 companies have sued over in the trade court.

"The Chief Judge has indicated that I am the only judge who will hear cases pertaining to the refund of [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] duties," Eaton wrote. "So there is no danger that another Judge, even one in this Court, will reach any contrary conclusions."

The case in question was brought by Atmus Filtration, Inc., a company that paid President Donald Trump's tariffs, which Trump imposed on nearly every country on an emergency basis under IEEPA last year.

The IEEPA is a 1977 law that allows the president – after declaring a national emergency in response to foreign threats – to regulate or block certain economic transactions, such as by imposing sanctions.

The Supreme Court decided 6-3 in February to block Trump's use of the emergency law to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners. The majority held that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, even after a national emergency declaration, because Congress did not clearly grant the executive branch that power.

All importers who paid those duties were entitled to benefit from the Supreme Court's ruling, Eaton said.

Eaton said CBP should calculate the affected imports as if the tariffs had never applied, which the judge signaled would eventually pave the way for refunds to the companies.

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The facade of the Supreme Court building at dusk is shown in this file photo.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court majority left the refund process unaddressed in its decision, leaving it to the lower courts to mete out. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, however, questioned in his dissent how the U.S. Treasury could go about refunding companies to the tune of billions of dollars, warning of "serious practical consequences."

"The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others," Kavanaugh wrote. "As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess.’"

Eaton disputed that notion during a hearing just prior to issuing his order.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented in a major Supreme Court decision striking down Trump's emergency tariffs. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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"There is nothing particularly novel about the provision of refunds. … I believe that there will be no chaos associated with the provision of these refunds and that it will not result in a mess," Eaton said, according to Politico.

Eaton is set to preside over a closed-door conference with the parties in the case on Friday to further discuss the refund process.