Alex de Gramont Discusses Possibility of Tariff Refund Litigation with Law360

The Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Trump administration’s tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act is expected to trigger not only a complex and potentially chaotic refund process for importers, but also a wave of private commercial disputes. For example, when multiple parties are involved, how will the tariff refunds be divided, and who will pay the legal costs of requesting those refunds? Womble Bond Dickinson Partner Alex de Gramont told Law360, “I suspect that there are a lot of agreements out there that allocated the risk, and perhaps the cost of the tariffs based on whichever side had the most bargaining power. So you could imagine a situation in which an importer told the exporter that they were going to have to somehow share in the cost of the tariffs and now, depending on how the liquidation process works ... there may be disputes as to who gets back what amounts of tariffs.”