The U.S. federal government's customs tariff refunds reached 21.972 billion U.S. dollars in May, according to monthly fiscal data released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Wednesday.
The federal government's total customs tariff revenue for May was 21.93 billion dollars, meaning that after deducting tariff refunds, the net tariff revenue for the month was negative 42 million dollars.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Feb 20 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to impose sweeping tariffs.
On March 4, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must not levy tariffs during customs clearance based on the IEEPA.
CBP launched the relevant refund process on April 20, with the first batch of refunds issued around May 11.
US refunds nearly 22 billion dollars in tariffs in May
