Tariff Litigation Boosts Novel Market for Importers' Refund Rights

Trade litigation attorney Ashley Akers was interviewed by Inside U.S. Trade about the burgeoning market for tariff refund rights as uncertainty about receiving compensation persists. As importers' questions about the timing of International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariff refunds continue to go unanswered, some have resorted to selling the rights to their refund instead of expending the time and resources to go through U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) process to claim the money or file a lawsuit to obtain it. Ashley told Inside U.S. Trade the practice itself of buying rights to third partiers' monetary claims like court settlements is not new, but its application specifically to the trade space is. She detailed the range of rates at which claims are being sold, including the spike after the U.S. Supreme Court officially invalidated the IEEPA duties, and reported factors such as the status of refunds for importers with finally liquidated entries also dictate resale trends.

"We've definitely seen a roller coaster of market rates," she said. "I've seen offers as low as 30 percent, all the way up to 90 percent, depending on the stage of the litigation and the status of the refunds... Now we're in a situation where any importer of record can get close to, if not full relief. It's just a matter of which barriers they're willing to overcome."

The article concluded with Ashley's comments that though litigation over the Trump Administration's Section 122 and forced labor tariffs could spur their own resale markets, "it's still really early for there to be that kind of financial interest" because the cases stand before the U.S. Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

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