Costco sues Trump admin for 'full refund' of tariffs

Costco Wholesale Corporation has filed a federal lawsuit against the United States, seeking to halt enforcement of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and reclaim duties the retailer says it was unlawfully required to pay on its imported goods. 

The complaint, lodged in the US Court of International Trade (CIT), argues that Trump exceeded his executive authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, Canada, and dozens of other countries. According to Costco, the statute does not give any president the power to create or raise tariffs, a position that federal courts have already endorsed in related cases.

Costco says it faces an urgent deadline under customs law that threatens its ability to recover the duties it has already paid.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is preparing to “liquidate” Costco’s import entries, finalizing the tariff amounts, beginning Dec. 15. Once an entry is liquidated, its duty amount becomes final, and importers typically lose the ability to challenge or recover those charges. Costco reports that one of its entries has already been finalized, with more approaching the cutoff, prompting the company to file suit immediately.

The retailer is seeking a court declaration that the tariff orders are unlawful, an injunction preventing CBP from applying the tariffs to Costco’s shipments, and a "full refund," with interest, of duties already paid.

Costco joins a growing contingent of companies contesting the legality of Trump’s tariff actions under IEEPA. The president’s orders, some of which imposed a 10 percent baseline tariff on nearly all imports, plus “reciprocal” tariffs of 11 percent to 50 percent on goods from 57 countries, were justified as emergency responses to drug trafficking and trade imbalances.

A wide range of import-reliant businesses have filed similar lawsuits, arguing that the sudden duties caused immediate cost spikes and supply-chain disruptions they could not absorb, including Bumble Bee Foods, Kawasaki Motors, Revlon, and Yokohama Tire.

Both the Court of International Trade and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have previously ruled that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, setting the stage for a definitive resolution. The issue is now before the US Supreme Court, which heard arguments on Nov. 5 in related cases challenging Trump’s emergency tariff authority. A decision is expected soon and could shape the trajectory of Costco’s lawsuit.

However, Costco emphasizes that even a favorable Supreme Court ruling will not automatically entitle importers to refunds unless they have filed their own cases before their entries are liquidated. That legal nuance, the company argues, makes its filing urgent.