Judge Orders Imports Cleared Without Struck-Down Tariffs

A U.S. trade court judge on Wednesday ordered the government to finalize goods entries into the U.S. without assessing tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court last month, according to a court filing.

The order could affect millions of shipments of goods.

As of Dec. 10, there were 19.2 million entries into the U.S. for which a final tariff or duty had not been assessed, which are known as unliquidated.

Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered that all unliquidated entries were to be finalized without assessing the illegal tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the law President Donald Trump used to try to impose them.

The U.S. government collected more than $130 billion in illegal tariff payments but the Supreme Court did not provide guidance for issuing refunds, creating confusion over how importers would be reimbursed.