Refunds From the Trump Administration’s Unlawful Tariffs Are a Windfall for Corporate America, Not for Small Businesses or Consumers

Photo: A container ship is docked at PortMiami in Miami, Florida, alongside ship-to-shore gantry cranes and stacked cargo containers. The port on Dodge Island handles container shipping and cruise traffic. Attribution: “Container Ship at PortMiami Berth, Miami” by Chad Davis via Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Article by Ryan Mulholland, Mimla Wardak and Kennedy Andara. Center for American Progress – October 1, 2026.

In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose its massive country-specific tariffs was unlawful. This means that for almost a year, the Trump administration unlawfully imposed tariffs under the act and collected them from U.S. importers. Although importers of record paid those duties, much of the economic costs were passed through supply chains to American manufacturers and small businesses in the form of higher prices—and eventually, those higher prices were passed on to American consumers. […]

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