Online shoppers seek tariff refunds

The Trump administration has yet to announce a process to return fees paid by companies and shoppers for tariffs that the US Supreme Court deemed illegal last month, writes Peter Eavis from New York

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Dr Andrew Angel paid a $67 tariff on a $345 pendant he bought from an eBay seller in Japan as a gift for his wife, Dr Irina Angel. NYT

r Andrew Angel, a physician from Cambridge, Massachusetts, paid a tariff on a $345 (10,900 baht) pendant he bought last year from an eBay seller in Japan.

Now, after the Supreme Court ruled that one of President Donald Trump's most widely used tariffs was unlawful, Dr Angel said he was entitled to a refund.

“The principle is obvious’ he said. “If it was illegal to collect my money, would certainly like to have my illegally collected money returned tome.”

Like many other shoppers who bought goods overseas in recent months, Dr Angel paid his tariff to the shipping company that delivered the item, in his case DHL. The company charged him $67 for the customs duty on the pendant, which was a birthday present for his wife, Dr Irina Angel.

“She loves it. It’s a keeper,’ he said.

For years, Americans who bought items from overseas did not have to pay tariffs on items worth $800 or less. Last year, Trump eliminated that loophole, known as the ‘de minimis exemption, and shipping companies started demanding that shoppers pay their tariffs before they got their goods. The shipping companies have been paying the duties on behalf of the shoppers to US Customs and Border Protection, the agency that collects tariffs.

Andrew Angel and many like him have the paperwork to prove that they paid tariffs.

That is not case for shoppers who paid higher prices because retailers or other businesses included all or some of the tariffin the final cost of goods. Such shoppers did not pay the customs duties themselves and, according to lawyers, would therefore find it hard to make a claim.