Judge orders Trump administration to finalise goods entering US without assessing tariffs that were struck down

WASHINGTON] A US trade court judge on Wednesday ordered the government to finalise goods entries into the US 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 US for which a final tariff or duty had not been assessed, which are known as unliquidated.

Richard Eaton of the US Court of International Trade ordered that all unliquidated entries were to be finalised without assessing the illegal tariffs, known as IEEPA tariffs for the law which President Donald Trump used to try to impose them.

The US government collected more than US$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. REUTERS