AS THE CHIEF merchandising officer for one of the largest sellers on Amazon, Owen Carr knew that the deck chairs he ordered from a Chinese factory in early April would cost him more than ever before. That’s because the chairs, which normally go for $79 on Amazon, were among the first Chinese imports subject to minimum tariffs of 145 percent—a sky-high rate imposed by President Donald Trump—when they arrived at a port in Seattle in late April. “I was paying more to customs than to the factory for the good itself,” Carr says. “Mind boggling.”
Now his company, Spreetail, is part of a narrow class of importers asking whether the Trump administration might provide a refund. On May 12, Trump reached a 90-day trade-war truce with China, cutting the minimum China tariffs to just 30 percent. The higher rate was in effect barely a month, from April 10 through May 14. “We did think there would be an agreement, but we didn’t think it would be that fast and that low,” Carr says.
A handful of trade attorneys who spoke with WIRED say they have told clients that refunds are unprecedented and unlikely—but not impossible. Businesses that had to pay the higher rate believe they were unfairly ensnared in Trump’s hasty negotiations. “There’s still a chance” of refunds, says Michael Roll, a partner at Roll & Harris. “I wouldn’t say there’s hope. I wouldn’t bet on that.”
