The legal fight over an estimated $175bn paid by US importers under President Donald Trump's now-cancelled emergency tariffs likely will head back to the US Court of International Trade.
The US Court of International Trade ruled in May 2025 that Trump's emergency tariffs were illegal, and the Supreme Court affirmed that decision on 20 February. The trade court at that time did not directly address the issue of processing refunds.
The plaintiffs in the original case — a group of US businesses and, separately, a coalition of US states — on Wednesday asked the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to send their lawsuit back to the Court of International Trade to determine how to handle potential tariff refunds. The appeals court gave government lawyers until Friday to respond whether they will support or oppose sending the refunds issue to the trade court.
Trump and his key economic advisers have said they expect a years-long court fight over the refunds. Lawyers representing US importers and states cited those statements and said they would like the Court of International Trade to quickly order the Trump administration to establish and implement a process for granting tariff refunds.
The US had collected $165bn in emergency tariffs as of January, but the total estimated refund bill would amount to $175bn, according to economists at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. The Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agency stopped collecting emergency tariffs on 3 February. More than 900 importers have already petitioned US courts to order refunds, including refiners Valero and Marathon Petroleum.
Demanding a tariff refund through the courts is not the only option for importers, analysts with the Congressional Research Service wrote last month. Importers can also file a protest with the CBP to demand a refund, but the timeline of that process may prove too long for many.
Under US customs law, importers at first pay an estimated amount of the tariff and CBP typically makes a final determination of the tariff due — a process called "liquidation" — within 314 days of the entry of a product into the US. Importers can file a protest demanding a refund within 180 days of the liquidation date. CBP can take up to two years to rule on a protest.
The administration estimated that as of mid-December, CBP processed 34mn customs transactions involving emergency tariffs and made a final determination of the tariff amount for 14.8mn of those. Importers that have yet to receive a final CBP assessment of the tariff due may have an easier time receiving a refund, according to the congressional researchers. Customs regulations generally would require a refund of the collected duty if a court invalidates a tariff before the CBP makes a final determination.
US retailers, automakers and other merchants have previously said they were absorbing the cost of some of the tariffs in anticipation of a potential ruling striking them down, while also raising prices to cover their additional costs. But it is unlikely that merchants receiving refunds will directly pass those savings along to customers that already paid inflated prices.
