00:00Well, what are the next steps from here?
00:03Well, that's a great question.
00:05I think a lot of companies are asking about refunds, right?
00:08What is going to happen for all of those entries, many billions of dollars of trade that have come in,
00:16and the expectation that once this ruling would come out, if it did, you know, in the importer's favor,
00:24that they would be getting those funds back.
00:26And I think there's a lot of questions now as to what the process will be and how long that
00:31will take.
00:34And would this only include the ones that were the plaintiffs of these sort of, you know,
00:39cases that were asking for refunds?
00:41Or do you expect this to be more wide-ranging and more universal?
00:46Well, again, I think that's a question that is left open.
00:51Certainly, there is the plaintiffs who brought this case.
00:55They have asked for refunds, and the lower courts, at least at this time,
00:59have indicated that they would have the ability to recoup those funds,
01:02and others potentially who brought suits as well.
01:05But in his press conference on Friday, the president indicated that that was not a settled question
01:11and that the government intended to litigate it further.
01:13That could delay for those plaintiffs as well as all of the other importers who have funds at issue.
01:21And the one question will be, will every importer, you know,
01:25essentially need to file a suit against the government in order to claim those refunds going forward?
01:33Okay, the cessation of tariff collection specifically, Greta, I wonder if you could elaborate more on that,
01:39because people are wondering what is still in effect as we speak and, you know,
01:45what then takes into effect on Tuesday.
01:48If you could just help us understand the nuance between those two things.
01:51Sure, and it is confusing.
01:53The Supreme Court's order did not automatically terminate those executive orders.
01:57It really kicked it back to the lower courts, who, of course, you know, on a Friday,
02:01didn't have time to, you know, process or put out further orders.
02:05But then the president sort of preempted that, those actions by the courts by rescinding the executive orders
02:12that put in place the reciprocal tariffs and other IEPA tariffs.
02:16But it left a little bit of a question of what's the actual end date of those reciprocal tariffs,
02:22because the order essentially said as soon as possible, Customs and Border Protection,
02:30other agencies should terminate the collection of these duties.
02:33So that's not a clear end date.
02:36And, you know, as of now, it appears that CBP is still collecting those duties.
02:42And there's still, the orders are still in place as it undertakes the administrative and
02:49technical procedures in order to stop that collection and revert back to the prior tariffs
02:57that would have applied to the products coming in.
03:00So we're a bit in this gray area, and it is leading a lot of uncertainty, you know, at the
03:05border,
03:06a lot of questions about when, you know, when's the best time to enter products?
03:10Should they be held? Should companies and importers wait to bring them in?
03:16It causes a lot of chaos.
03:21It certainly does lead to more uncertainty, as you mentioned, Greta.
03:25The use of Section 122, I wanted to ask you about the justification of that,
03:30because the U.S. Trump administration has said it was to address the balance of payments issue,
03:36like conditions of, you know, whether they can actually deal with, you know,
03:41this deficit of balance of payments or even a significant depreciation of the dollar.
03:45Do you think that there are grounds for that in any way?
03:49Well, this is an untested statute.
03:51It's never been used before.
03:53It was actually put in place as the result of Nixon putting in a temporary tariff for that
04:01very reason, for a balance of payments, a purpose.
04:04And so, you know, we don't really know how courts would look at the exercise of this authority
04:14and what kind of factors they would look like and whether the conditions that are on the ground
04:19in the U.S. economy today would justify it.
04:22But, you know, the president has, you know, set out his reasons in the executive order to invoke it.
04:29And because it is this temporary nature, only 150 days, I think, you know, it's to be seen
04:35whether, in this case, importers will bring a case knowing that this authority will soon expire in any event.
04:45And so, Greta, a two-part question is, the 15%, does that, is there any legal risk to the president
04:54as far as that's concerned, or does that stay for 150 days,
04:58just in terms of being able to give businesses and economies around the world some level of certainty?
05:04And what's next?
05:06What do you think, what's next for the White House here as far as this conversation is concerned?
05:12Sure. Well, the authority that's being invoked, Section 122, it caps out at 15%.
05:18So it specifically says that a surcharge and additional tariff of up to 15% is allowed using that authority.
05:25You can't go higher than that, than that 15%.
05:28But that's certainly, you know, if it's, you know, a valid use of Section 122, it would be within bounds
05:36there.
05:36I would say we haven't actually seen an executive order yet that increases that 10% to 15%.
05:42We, of course, saw the announcement from the president that, that they, that the administration will do so.
05:49But as of today, that 10% increase or new tariff, which will come into effect on Tuesday, that's what's
05:56on the books.
05:57Thanks.
Comments