class action (13. 234)

A senior judge of the US Court of International Trade has ruled that following the Supreme Court’s decision that the duties imposed under the 1977 emergency powers law were illegal tariffs all “importers of record” are entitled to refunds and that the judge himself has sole legal subject matter jurisdiction over cases involving paying back the IEEPA levies. The US government collected more than one hundred thirty billion dollars in tariffs under the overruled provisions, and whilst exports that are subject to controls under the currently unfunded (due to demands for reform for ICE tactics) US Customs and Border Protection have a process for seeking remedy called “liquidation,” a limited window of time to contest accounting and appraisal, there is no mechanism for mass appeals—something which the agency must come up with.