US judge and lawyers to discuss how to refund $175bn in illegal Trump tariffs

Richard Eaton, who said this week that importers must be paid back, reportedly meeting customs agency lawyers

A US judge will reportedly meet government lawyers to agree how to refund up to $175bn in tariffs that were collected illegally from more than 300,000 importers.

Judge Richard Eaton of the US court of international trade would hear from lawyers for the customs agency responsible for the repayments on Friday, Reuters reported. The supreme court decided last month that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for most of the Trump administration’s global tariffs.

The closed-doors meeting would be a “closed conference”, the court’s website said. Gina Justice, the trade court’s clerk, said it was a “settlement conference”.

The judge told Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday that it must start paying back importers using its existing systems – with interest – in an order covering all affected importers, not just those who had taken their cases to court.

The supreme court struck down Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs on 20 February, ruling that he had exceeded his authority when issuing them last year. The decision gave no detail on how importers would get their money back, leading to a swathe of lawsuits.

“Customs knows how to do this,” Eaton told a court hearing on Wednesday. He said the agency should be able to issue refunds simply on its system, which are regularly provided when importers are found to have overpaid initially.

When goods are brought into the US, an importer pays an estimated amount that is eventually finalised a little over 10 months later, in a process called liquidation. Eaton has said CBP should finalise the entry cost on shipments without the tariff – effectively issuing refunds.

“They do it every day. They liquidate entries and make refunds,” he said.

The order by Eaton came in a case brought by the manufacturer Atmus Filtration, which said in court filings it had paid about $11m in illegal tariffs.

Atmus’s lawyers are expected to be able to attend Friday’s meeting remotely, according to court documents. It potentially earmarks the Atmus case as the vehicle that decides how to give tariff refunds more widely, for as many as 2,000 other cases brought so far.

“I don’t believe that any of this has to be chaotic with respect to anybody, because I know that ​you’re going to try to come up with a way of doing it,” Eaton said on Wednesday.

Separately, a group of Democratic attorneys general and governors across 24 US states said on Thursday that they would sue Trump over his more recent round of tariffs. In the aftermath of the supreme court decision, the White House said it would bring in a new 15% charge on all imports under a different law.

The suit, led by Letitia James, the New York attorney general, argues that the US president does not have the authority to impose the new tariffs, and demands states be refunded for extra costs.

“Once again, President Trump is ignoring the law and the constitution to effectively raise taxes on consumers and small businesses,” James said.