{"id":6662,"date":"2026-08-05T10:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=6662"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:30:31","slug":"trump-administration-has-refunded-60-of-165bn-taken-in-illegal-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=6662","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration has refunded 60% of $165bn taken in illegal tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"19f28f5e-380c-49b0-9af9-ca6b98355d03\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Stacked shipping containers and cranes fill the Port of Los Angeles with a truck passing by\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ed2c3601a468df43f57e47e94309fd63d0d09547\/0_0_5000_4000\/master\/5000.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"372\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">The port of Los Angeles. Tariffs have been a key part of Donald Trump\u2019s economic plan since he took office again.<\/span> Photograph: Mike Blake\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"19f28f5e-380c-49b0-9af9-ca6b98355d03\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">The port of Los Angeles. Tariffs have been a key part of Donald Trump\u2019s economic plan since he took office again.<\/span> Photograph: Mike Blake\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">Trump administration has refunded 60% of $165bn taken in illegal tariffs<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1gm5ptv\">\n<p>Government has so far returned $100bn to companies from levies that US supreme court struck down<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/live\/2026\/aug\/05\/asian-shares-jump-ai-trade-revival-despite-spacex-amd-setbacks-oil-prices-dip-live-updates\" data-link-name=\"in standfirst link\">Business live \u2013 latest updates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Trump administration<\/a> has refunded about $100bn from the tariffs it collected before the US supreme court ruled them illegal, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The $100bn (\u00a374bn) figure, which represents 60% of the total $165bn collected from Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cliberation day\u201d tariffs, was reported by customs officials to the US court of international trade (CIT) on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-tariffs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Tariffs<\/a>, which are taxes on imported goods, have been a key part of Trump\u2019s economic plan since he took office again last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In February, the supreme court struck down a chunk of the extra tariffs Trump had imposed, forcing the government to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/27\/trump-administration-tariff-refunds\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">return money<\/a> to the companies that had paid them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Trump has pitched tariffs as a solution for the US economy, bringing back domestic production, securing better trade deals and closing the deficit in the federal budget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">However, the deficit has grown after narrowing last year thanks to rising tax revenue and tariff income. It hit $1.37tn in the first nine months of the fiscal year, up 2% compared with the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Trump imposed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/23\/trump-administration-trade-tariffs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">fresh round of tariffs <\/a>on more than 80 countries last month to replace a 10% global duty that was due to expire. The levies range between 10% and 12.5% on countries including the UK, Mexico, Canada, Australia, India, China and the European Union\u2019s 27 members states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The latest tariffs have been introduced under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is aimed against countries that engage in forced labour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">However, this week a coalition of 25 US states <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/aug\/03\/states-sue-trump-administration-tariffs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">sued the Trump administration over the levies<\/a>, calling them a pretext for replacing import taxes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/20\/trump-supreme-court-tariffs-ruling\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">struck down<\/a> by the supreme court in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The states have asked the CIT to stop the tariffs, declare them unlawful and order refunds of duties that have already been paid.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-d9bay7\"><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1tr4stg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-12qa5gp\">\n<hr class=\"dcr-1cjdlyj\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The states involved in the action argue that the tariffs on 59 countries and the EU cover 99.4% of US imports. Officials in the Trump administration have said the countries have not done enough to crack down on products made by forced labour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The New York attorney general, Letitia James, said the Trump administration, after losing at the supreme court in February, was \u201conce again trying to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/trump-tariffs\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Trump tariffs<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/business\/tariffs\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Tariffs<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/trump-administration\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Trump administration<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/business\/internationaltrade\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">International trade<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/business\/economics\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Economics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/business\/global-economy\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Global economy<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Trump%20administration%20has%20refunded%2060%%20of%20$165bn%20taken%20in%20illegal%20tariffs&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/aug\/05\/trump-administration-has-paid-back-100bn-of-165bn-tariff-refunds?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Faug%2F05%2Ftrump-administration-has-paid-back-100bn-of-165bn-tariff-refunds&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/aug\/05\/trump-administration-has-paid-back-100bn-of-165bn-tariff-refunds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1kq7f60\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The port of Los Angeles. Tariffs have been a key part of Donald Trump\u2019s economic plan since he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6665,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions\/6665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}