US trade judge urges Trump administration to speed up tariff refunds
Source: Reuters
June 9, 2026 11:30 AM EDT Updated 2 hours ago
NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. trade judge on Tuesday urged Trump administration officials to speed up refunds of more than $10 billion in revenue from tariffs that were collected and later deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, but stopped short of issuing a new order compelling them to do so.
Judge Richard Eaton of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade said the delay in processing some claims was leading to a "growing inequity" between large importers who hired customs brokers to help them navigate a government system for seeking refunds, and smaller businesses which had not.
Eaton called the inequity an "unintended consequence" of how the government set up its system to return the $166 billion in illegal tariffs and said he did not believe the administration was seeking to favor larger importers.
But he said the Trump administration's decision to appeal his March 4 order requiring the government to refund all tariffs was delaying the payments. "Time has come to refund all the duties," said Eaton, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton. "One way to accomplish this would be for the government to not appeal my order."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-customs-agency-trade-judge-seek-path-final-tariff-refunds-2026-06-09/
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