Top associations of American businesses are demanding to be repaid for Donald Trump’s tariffs following Friday’s supreme court ruling.
The US National Retail Federation, which represents a number of US retailers, from Walmart to small brands and manufacturers, called for “a seamless process to refund the tariffs to US importers”.
“The refunds will serve as an economic boost and allow companies to reinvest in their operations, their employees and their customers,” it said.
The US Chamber of Commerce, too, called for swift return of an estimated $133bn in collected tariffs covered by the ruling. Its chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said: “Swift refunds of the impermissible tariffs will be meaningful for the more than 200,000 small business importers in this country and will help support stronger economic growth this year.
“We encourage the administration to use this opportunity to reset overall tariff policy in a manner that will lead to greater economic growth, larger wage gains for workers and lower costs for families,” he added.
The supreme court did not address the issue of whether the Trump administration would have to repay the tariffs it has collected since the US president upended the global economic order by slapping wildly varying levies on different countries apparently at a whim.
The court said Trump had exceeded his authority, but it also left lower courts to sort out the issue of repayments, which many observers say could be a mess, particularly given that Trump immediately attempted to reintroduce 10% tariffs on all countries via a different law after the ruling on Friday.
Dan Anthony, director of the business coalition We Pay the Tariffs, noted that the impact of the tariffs has been particularly hard on small businesses, which have taken out loans, delayed hiring and canceled expansion plans to accommodate import tariffs.
Refunds, he predicted, would allow businesses to reverse those trends.
The body published a national sign-on letter that said it was “imperative that that money is then given back without some of these onerous processes”.
“Full, fast automatic refunds is really where our focus is going to be,” it added.
“They’ve taken out loans just to keep their doors open. They’ve frozen hiring, canceled expansion plans, and watched their life savings drain away to pay tariff bills that weren’t in any budget or business plan,” the statement said. “But a legal victory is meaningless without actual relief for the businesses that paid these tariffs.”
The American Apparel and Footwear Association called on the Customs and Border Protection agency, which levies import duties, to “move quickly and provide clear guidance to American businesses on how to obtain refunds for tariffs that were unlawfully collected”.
But without a framework, and Trump’s apparently intention to impose tariffs by other legal means, refunds are likely not an immediate prospect.
At a testy news conference on Friday, Trump said it was “crazy” that the court justices had not addressed the issue of refunds. “It’s not discussed,” he said. “We’ll end up being in court for the next five years.”
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, had a similar message. “My sense is that could be dragged out over weeks, months, years,” he said at conference in Dallas, Texas. “I’ve got a feeling the American people won’t see it.”
Greg Husisian, trade attorney at Foley & Lardner, said the court of international trade (CIT) will need to deal with the issue of refunds.
It would need to determine whether it can issue blanket relief to every importer who paid tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the first Trump method for imposing tariffs and which the supreme court rejected.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Husisian said, “likely will continue to collect all IEEPA tariffs, until they are replaced by new tariffs as announced by President Trump”.
He warned that while the ruling was a major development, the issue of refunds has rounds of litigation to go.
“CBP likely will hold on to all previously collected tariffs, while the court of international trade decides what should happen on the topic of refunds,” he said.
“There likely will only be a refund of the previously collected IEEPA tariffs when there is a final, unappealable ruling, which could involve further rounds of briefing and oral arguments at the CIT, an appeal to the US court of appeals for the federal circuit, and then a potential appeal (again) to the supreme court.”
Furthermore, he said, the Trump administration is “likely will take all available steps not to upset the tariffs for countries that have struck framework agreements with the United States on tariff issues, such as the UK and Japan”.
