Trump tariffs: US judge to hold ‘settlement’ meet today after ordering refunds following SCOTUS ruling—what to expect?

A US judge is set to meet government lawyers behind closed doors on Friday to work out a plan to process the refunds that have arisen out of President Donald Trump's illegal International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs on nations, according to a report.

The meeting to refund $175 billion in illegally collected tariffs has been described as a “settlement conference”, Reuters reported, quoting a court official.

What is the case?

Judge Richard Eaton of the US Court of International Trade will be meeting lawyers representing the customs agency that is supposed to reimburse the $175 billion to more than 3,00,000 companies that paid the tariffs. The US Supreme Court had struck down these tariffs as illegal last month in a blow to the Trump administration.

Government lawyers have argued that the process to refund these US tariffs was unprecedented in scope and would entail manual review of tariff payments ranging tens of millions in number.

While US courts are generally open to the public, judges can hold closed-door meetings with lawyers in case of cases with sensitive information.

The calendar on the court's website describes Friday's meeting as a "closed conference." When asked why the meeting was closed to the public, Gina Justice, the clerk for the trade court, told Reuters on Thursday that it was a "settlement conference."

Atmus Filtration Inc, an importer, had brought about the case that Justice Eaton will be overseeing. The company had said in a court filing that it had paid $11 million in illegal tariffs. Atmus' lawyers will be able to attend Friday's meeting remotely, according to the court docket.

It is unclear why the Atmus case, which was filed last week, became the vehicle that may determine how to litigate the tariff refunds for around 2,000 cases.

The judge, who said he was chosen by the court to hear those cases, said he wanted a process that would not require going to court.

An attorney involved with other trade refund cases said they believed the meeting would result in a process that would be made public as soon as Friday, according to Reuters. This would provide relatively quick refunds for the vast majority of importers without the need to sue.

US court directs Trump officials to start refunding companies

In a landmark verdict on Wednesday, Justice Eaton issued an order directing the Customs and Border Protection agency to begin the process to refund the illegally collected tariffs to hundreds of thousands of importers who paid them since August last year.

The order, which directed the CBP to use its existing internal process, clearly said that it applied for all importers and not just Atmus.

Eaton said he expected CBP lawyers to attend Friday's 10:30 a.m. ET (1530 GMT) meeting to chalk out a way to cut paperwork on 79 million shipments and issue refunds.

“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 at Wednesday's hearing. “And so on Friday, we're going to hear at least the initial ideas from the customs service as to how this will proceed.”