U.S. Customs Tells Judge $166 Billion in Illegal Tariffs Will Take 45 Days to Refund

Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade convened a closed-door settlement conference Friday after Customs and Border Protection revealed it needs 45 days to build a system capable of returning the money. Brandon Lord, a top CBP official, filed the estimate in court and pegged the total pot at “approximately $166 billion,” enough to cover the annual budget of the entire U.S. Marine Corps twice. About 330,000 importers—ranging from mom-and-pop electronics shops to Fortune 500 manufacturers—paid those tariffs before the Supreme Court struck them down on 20 February.

The meter is still running. Libertarian economists at the Cato Institute calculate Washington now owes an extra $23 million in interest every day it stalls, or $700 million a month. Ed Brzytwa of the Consumer Technology Association says that compounding bill should light a fire under officials: “The government should have an intrinsic interest in providing these funds as fast as possible, so they don’t owe more interest.” For consumers, the stakes are shelves full of products—phones, routers, game consoles—that briefly carried price hikes of up to 25 percent and could now drop if retailers pass the refunds along.