Washington DC - A judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to stop assessing global tariffs on imports where customs payments have not been finalized, a move some experts view as a step towards broader refunds.
The ruling by Judge Richard Eaton, who sits on the US Court of International Trade in New York, comes after the Supreme Court blocked a swath of Trump's duties last month – dealing a major blow to his trade agenda.
In his Wednesday order, Eaton told US Customs and Border Protection to stop calculating the struck-down tariffs for imports where payments have yet to be fully finalized.
He also confirmed that he was the "only judge who will hear cases pertaining to the refund of IEEPA duties," referring to those that Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Since returning to the presidency last year, Trump had tapped this authority to slap sweeping duties on virtually all trading partners, before the top court ruled that he had exceeded his power in doing so.
The ruling has opened the door to a battle for tariff refunds, with the duties generating more than $130 billion for the government as of late 2025.
The judge's ruling "could apply to almost every import that came into the US where [such] duties were paid, meaning basically the judge is ordering the government to refund all of those," former US trade official Ryan Majerus told AFP.
"We'll have to wait and see if the three-judge panel in the main case issues a similar order or if we get other indications from the court," said Majerus, now a partner at King & Spalding.
But he added that the judge in this case stated there is no risk of other judges on the court reaching contrary conclusions.
Trump has used a different law to impose a temporary 10% tariff on imports just days after the high court's ruling, as he moved to rebuild his economic agenda.
The president has threatened to hike this level to 15%, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the increase could be implemented this week.