The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday.
Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of Donald Trump’s economic plan since he took office again last year.
In February the supreme court shut down a big chunk of the extra tariffs Trump had ordered, forcing the government to return money to the companies that had paid them.
A Treasury department official said the spike was almost entirely because of the supreme court decision, with most of the refunds happening in May and June.
Trump had pitched the tariffs as a catch-all fix for the economy, bringing factories back to the US, getting better trade deals and closing the deficit in the federal budget.
But the deficit, which had become a little smaller last year thanks to the tariff income, is now growing again.
Last month Trump also threatened a 100% tariff on European countries, including the UK, that pursue a tax on the biggest US tech companies. »
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