The U.S. Court of International Trade (USCIT) has granted eligibility to all importers to benefit from the ruling invalidating the so-called "Trump reciprocal tariff."
On the 4th (local time), Richard Eaton, a senior judge at the USCIT, wrote in the decision that all importers are eligible to be beneficiaries under the Supreme Court's invalidation ruling.
At the same time, Judge Eaton said, "Cases concerning refunds of the reciprocal tariff that former President Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) but was ruled unlawful will be heard by me alone."
The case Judge Eaton reviewed this time specifically concerns a refund claim filed by Atmos Filtration, a filter company based in Nashville, Tennessee. It has been reported that more than 2,000 tariff refund lawsuits were filed before and after the ruling.
According to the decision, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) cannot collect IEEPA tariff on goods undergoing "liquidation," and when the settlement of account process is completed, customs must recalculate excluding the tariff and process the refund.
Settlement of account is a procedure applied to all goods that pass through customs and refers to the stage where the agency issues the final bill for the amount due. Importers may formally challenge the tariff within 180 days of completion of settlement, and after that period the settlement is finalized.
Earlier, on the 20th of last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the reciprocal tariff imposed by the Trump administration under the IEEPA enacted in 1977 was unlawful, but it remanded the case to the CIT without mentioning specific refund procedures.
According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, the federal government collected about $130 billion (about 190 trillion won) under the IEEPA through mid-December last year, and the final refund amount is estimated to reach $175 billion (about 256 trillion won).
In response, Ryan Majerus, a trade law attorney, said, "Customs will seek a stay (of this ruling) to buy more time to comply with the decision."