State Treasurers Raise Concerns Over Tariff Refund Process

A group of Democratic state treasurers, controllers and auditors from eight states sent a letter to the administration expressing concerns about the tariff refund process established after the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs unlawful. The officials from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont called for the process to be carried out with full transparency and fairness.

They stated that the current approach does not adequately reflect the actual distribution of costs because it does not account for costs passed on to consumers. The administration created a portal for importers to request refunds after a court order.

Refunds began reaching company accounts last week, and importers have reported the process is proceeding largely smoothly. While importers receive funds, consumers who paid higher prices due to tariffs passed along by businesses have few direct options for reimbursement.

Companies must decide voluntarily whether to return money to customers, though some consumers have filed class action lawsuits seeking to require repayments. The state officials asked the administration to publicly report every importer that has requested and received a refund.

They also called for extending the reimbursement process to American households and consumers who paid higher prices. The administration has not responded publicly to the letter. As of Monday morning, the government reported providing about $35.5 billion in refunds, including interest, according to a court filing.

That amount represents a small fraction of the approximately $166 billion eligible for refund, which excludes interest.

Very few companies have announced plans to pass refunds on to consumers. Cards Against Humanity, FedEx and UPS are among those that have said they will provide payments. Other companies have not offered direct repayments. Class action lawsuits have been filed against Costco, Nike, Nintendo and IKEA.

All of those cases remain pending and could take years to resolve. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful because the president lacked authority under that law. The decision addressed tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% applied to nearly all countries.

The administration later replaced those tariffs with a 10% global tariff under different legal authority. A court recently declared those tariffs unlawful as well, but an appeals court ruled Tuesday to keep them in place during the appeal process.