US refunds $22 billion in first repayments of Trump's tariffs in May

The US Treasury Department said Wednesday that authorities made $22 billion in customs refunds last month, marking the first series of repayments after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's global tariffs.

Data from the Treasury Department showed that customs refunds in May cancelled out the duties collected that month, which amounted to $22 billion as well.

The shift came after the high court dealt a sharp blow to Trump's economic agenda in February, ruling that he had exceeded his authority in tapping emergency economic powers to impose sweeping tariffs on US trading partners.


Since then, a refund system handled by US Customs and Border Protection has started processing repayments of some $166 billion collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

But the Trump administration has appealed the trade court's order for tariff refunds -- which could have consequences for the ongoing reimbursements.

Judge Richard Eaton of the US Court of International Trade warned in a letter last week that inteference with his handling of the case could "discourage continuing progress" in the refund process.

Overall, the US budget deficit shrank by nine percent from a year ago to $1.2 trillion for the first eight months of this fiscal year.

Since the Supreme Court ruled against Trump's global tariffs, the US leader has turned to separate authorities to impose a new 10-percent duty on imports.

While this fresh tariff is temporary, US officials have also moved towards rolling out more lasting duties.

The Supreme Court ruling does not affect Trump's sector-specific tariffs on goods like steel, aluminum and automobiles.