The Trump administration is expected to start accepting claims next week for refunds from the tariffs President Trump collected illegally.
In an order Tuesday, Judge Richard Eaton of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade said the government confirmed in a closed conference earlier in the day that it is on track to begin processing claims for refunds with interest on April 20 for some importers.
The refund claims that the government said it can start accepting amount to about $127 billion of the $166 billion the government collected in tariffs that were invalidated by the Supreme Court in February, Eaton said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been working to build a system to handle refunds after Eaton directed it to immediately begin the repayment process on March 4, but he ultimately gave the Trump administration more time after it said its current system wasn’t capable of reimbursing for more than 53 million imports that were affected by Trump’s tariffs.
More than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed at the trade court by companies seeking a refund. The Supreme Court left it to the trade court to figure out if and how importers would get their money back after it said Trump lacked authority to issue the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The refund process was initially expected to be hashed out in a case filed by Atmus Filtration Technologies until the Nashville, Tenn., company last week voluntarily dismissed its claim for an $11 million refund. The company decided it no longer wanted to be the public face of the massive scramble for repayments, according to people familiar with their discussions.
Atmus Filtration didn’t respond to several requests for comment.
Eaton quickly selected a substitute case and reissued his March order. The needle he appeared to pluck from the haystack this time, a lawsuit brought by Euro-notions Florida, happens to import sewing needles.
In reissuing his order, however, Eaton appears to reset the 60-day clock for the government to file an appeal. Trade lawyers following the litigation expect the government may still choose to do that. Eaton ordered the government to file a report by noon on April 28 updating the court on the progress it has made so far on processing refund claims.
Write to Lydia Wheeler at lydia.wheeler@wsj.com