AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Well, let's take a closer look at the impact of the Supreme Court decision we just heard about. In the past year, the federal government has collected more than $200 billion in tariffs imposed by President Trump. But what about the businesses who paid those tariffs? Now that the court has weighed in, can they get that money back? NPR correspondent Alina Selyukh has been talking to some of these small business owners, and she joins us now. Good morning.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Hello. Hello.
RASCOE: So, Alina, what are you hearing from these business owners?
SELYUKH: You know, when the Supreme Court ruling went out, it was like a torrent of messages, just flying from business owner to business owner. I actually have my phone here, and I'm just, like, scrolling through these texts. They've been waiting quite literally with bated breath for this ruling because there's so much money at stake. And, like, one person told me they got a text in all caps from a retail trade group official with the news. One importer, his name is Richard Brown, found out from my text message while he was buying a bagel for breakfast, and his first response was, my jaw just dropped.
RICHARD BROWN: This is a win. This - oh, this is - I can't - this is a win on so many fronts. I am elated. I can't wait to get back to normal...
SELYUKH: Brown is from...
BROWN: ...Whatever that is.
SELYUKH: Brown is from Ohio. His company is called Proof Culture. It imports sneaker-related products, like laces and cleaners. And it's a small business - and it's small businesses like that that have been struggling the most to pay Trump's tariffs. In fact, the Supreme Court case was brought by a coalition of small businesses. So now they're excited. They're relieved, but also anxious because we're back to not really knowing what happens next.
RASCOE: Now, is that partly because Trump has already said he will impose new tariffs?
SELYUKH: Definitely. And, you know, Trump has vowed to get his tariffs back. It was a matter of hours after the Supreme Court ruling that he reimposed a global tariff at 10%. A day later, he posted online it's going to be 15%. He's finding new legal avenues, which do come with caveats, like these tariffs can only be temporary for about five months unless Congress extends them. Importers and retailers are once again riding that roller coaster, trying to guess how much it will cost to get their shipments through U.S. customs. I talked to Alfred Mai, who sells card games - think like family trivia. He makes them in China, and here's his take.
ALFRED MAI: I was joyful, like everyone else, but I'm sitting here right now, understanding that this is probably not the end. I think there's even less certainty of what's going to happen over the next few months with the Supreme Court ruling, to be honest with you.
RASCOE: OK. So there's clearly uncertainty about potential new tariffs. What about the tariffs they've already paid?
SELYUKH: That is the question on Mai's mind this weekend.
MAI: How do we get a refund? Where do I go to get a refund? Like, how - what's the entire way to move forward?
SELYUKH: For the past year, Mai has paid tens of thousands of dollars to the U.S. government in fees that the Supreme Court now says were illegal. But the court did not set out a process to repay these fees to all the businesses like Mai's. And so he is wondering, is he going to have to hire lawyers to potentially sue over this money or some sort of a broker to get his refunds?
MAI: There's just no direction, right? This is so new. This is so directionless that we're kind of stuck asking AI on what to do next.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Did he just say he's asking AI?
SELYUKH: Yes. Yes. I suppose AI's guess is as good as anybody's at this point. What we know for now is that the Supreme Court says about half of President Trump's tariffs from last year were unlawfully collected. So whoever paid those tariffs is owed their money back. We're talking altogether more than a hundred billion dollars in tariffs. And how that money gets returned is unclear.
RASCOE: So did AI give Mai any clues about getting his money back?
SELYUKH: So, actually, the place he ended up going to is the same place so many people mentioned. It's this existing online portal. It's called ACE, A-C-E, and it's a place where the government already reviews complaints from companies that pay tariffs. It's like a website where you can say, hey, there was a mistake on my customs form. Can you take another look and refund me some of what I paid? Almost everyone I talked to said they're hoping this will be the system for refunds. It already exists. It has all the records. The government knows exactly how much each importer has paid. Now, we don't know if this portal is how refunds will work, but the Supreme Court ruling sent lots of folks logging on preemptively filing their refund requests just in case. When I talked to Mai on Friday, he said he spent over an hour trying to log onto this portal, getting error messages. He said he would give it a few days for the flood to subside, perhaps, and try again later.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Alina Selyukh. Thank you so much.
SELYUKH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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