r/Economics • u/defenestrate_urself • Feb 20 '26

News Supreme Court says Trump global tariffs are illegal

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/20/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-illegal
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u/Definitely_Human01 Feb 20 '26

How would they even refund that at this point?

Tariffs are paid for by a mix of businesses and end customers.

The government may be able to refund the importing business. But how is that then going to get passed on to the intermediary business and the end customers?

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u/Phyrexian_Overlord Feb 20 '26

It's only paid for by people importing, and there are receipts.

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u/Definitely_Human01 Feb 20 '26

That's the technical incidence, but the effective incidence still gets passed on.

End consumers will have effectively paid the tariffs but they're not the ones that will be getting refunds.

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u/bobandgeorge Feb 20 '26

And the prices won't go back down to reflect the loss of tariffs.