US judge to meet parties on Trump-tariff refunds in settlement conference

A U.S. judge will meet behind closed doors with government lawyers on Friday seeking to hammer out a process to refund up to $166 billion in illegally collected tariffs, a meeting a court official described as a "settlement conference."



Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade will meet with lawyers representing the customs agency responsible for reimbursing more than 300,000 importers that paid the tariffs, which were struck down last month as unconstitutional.



Just as the meeting was scheduled to start, a top customs official informed the court that his agency was unable to comply with the judge's directive earlier this week to use its existing system to generate automatic ‌tariff refunds. Businesses have raised concerns about what they expect to be a months- or

years-long process to get refunds.



U.S. courts are presumed to be open to the public, although judges will sometimes hold private meetings with parties to discuss scheduling or how to handle sensitive information.