Washington has started processing refunds on tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, but the money will flow to US importers, not foreign suppliers.
The United States has begun the first phase of what could become one of the largest tariff refund exercises in its history, after the US Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026 that tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful. The decision invalidated a broad set of Trump-era “reciprocal” and related emergency tariffs and set in motion a refund process now being administered by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
CBP’s new refund platform, known as CAPE, went live this week. Reuters reports that the initial phase covers about $127 billion of the roughly $166 billion in tariff collections deemed eligible for repayment, with refunds expected to be processed in roughly 60 to 90 days once claims are approved. The scale is enormous: court filings cited by Reuters say around 330,000 importers paid those duties across 53 million shipments.
The most important commercial point is who gets paid. The refunds go to the party that actually paid the duty at the border, which in most cases means the US importer of record, not the overseas exporter. That means foreign suppliers in countries such as India, Bangladesh or Vietnam have no automatic legal claim on the refunded money unless they themselves were the importer on record through a US subsidiary or related entity.
That distinction matters for textiles and apparel. Business Standard, citing calculations by the Global Trade Research Initiative, says Indian exports are linked to about $12 billion of the refund pool, including roughly $4 billion tied to textiles and apparel. But any recovery for Indian exporters would depend on private renegotiation with US buyers rather than direct reimbursement from Washington.
For apparel exporters, the immediate gain is likely to be indirect. Buyers receiving refunds may have more room to place orders, reduce pressure for discounts, or revisit prices. But unless exporters can negotiate rebate-sharing, credit notes or better forward pricing, the cash benefit will remain largely on the US side of the transaction.
