President Donald Trump has warned of disaster if the Supreme Court overturns his signature tariffs. For starters, it would unleash a bureaucratic nightmare involving reams of refund paper checks.
Should Trump’s country-based tariffs be deemed illegal, the US could owe the bulk of the $165 billion in customs duties collected so far this fiscal year back to companies that paid them. But they won’t have an easy time getting their money back; refunds are typically issued slowly with paper checks and while the administration could streamline the process to repay the funds en masse, experts fear that’s unlikely.
Trump has coveted the revenue from tariffs, saying they have made the country “very rich again.” The president and his allies have floated using the money to carry out policy objectives, including paying down the national debt, funding aid for beleaguered farmers and perhaps even cutting so-called rebate checks for Americans.
That means Trump likely won’t part with the funds easily if the tariffs are struck down, and the administration is expected to move quickly to reimpose levies using other legal authorities if that happens. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in November in the case.
Bloomberg “Customs isn’t just going to hand importers a bunch of money,” said L
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