In April 2, 2025, President Trump announced Liberation Day or tariffs on every country in the world. President Trump believes in tariffs and wanted more economic activity in the US. The tariffs were signed in by executive order using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)which put its path in the court system. The US Constitution says only Congress can pass taxes, but the President said he does not believe in higher taxes, he wanted more revenue, this was different. The court cases came and the lower courts said no, tariffs are a tax. The case went to the Supreme Court and the court agreed tariffs are a tax and only Congress can increase taxes. If President Trump wanted to, he could go through Congress and try to have them pass the tariff tax. Unfortunately for him, he does not have the votes.

US Customs and Border Protection went to work and designed a program called CAPE. The system will consolidate refunds so importers will receive one electronic payment, with interest where applicable, rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis. At the Supreme Court, one of the arguments to keep the system in place was that it was going to be complicated to get back the refunds. The agency figured it out.

The Agency noted there was $166 billion collected from tariffs and the first phase is for money to go out starting April 20, 2026.

In court cases, some 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive electronic refunds affected by the court’s ruling or $127 billion.

A different issue is prices went up because tariffs are a cost, when the importers receive the bulk of their money, will they lower prices, because the cost of the tariff is gone?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, ideally all the companies follow the law or the regulations decided by the government. They can try to change the rules, sometimes by courts and sometimes by regulatory bodies, but they should follow the rules or the rule of law. It has taken a year, which is why the process takes time but in the end the court delivers the correct judgement. Sometimes the law helps your investments, sometimes they take a hit, but often they will bounce back and in the long run you will be rewarded.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions,