Description: Companies and businesses that conducted financial transactions following US president Trump’s tariffs were eligible for returns under the newest decision by the SCOTUS and the US Court of International Trade. Statistical data showed that more than 330 thousand companies conducted over 53 million shipments under the tariff law amounting to approximately $166 billion. Companies and representatives would need to register on the US Customs and Border Protection website for the returns, create a profile and list declarations of all the products involved in the tariff financial transactions. Individual consumers hit by the higher prices of goods through the tariffs are unlikely to be directly or indirectly compensated. Major technical issues with the CBP’s website were reported earlier as more than 56 thousand customers applied for refunds.
Impact: The unconstitutional classification of Trump’s tariffs would likely negatively reverberate on the Trump administration domestically and on the foreign policy front. Domestically, the reversal of the tariff effects would overburden the already bureaucratic – centered administrative system, create long lasting legal consequences and retract the artificially imploded benefits from the tariff policy. On the foreign policy front, China would most likely benefit in the trade war with the US and be in a position to draw wide ranging concessions from the US administration ahead of the planned leaders’ summit between Trump and Xi in May. The economic and geopolitical chaos caused by the tariff policy would likely also significantly decrease the strategic depth of the Trump administration in terms of waging a conditional and assertive foreign policy through economic pressure in the future.