US returned more than $80 billion to victims of Trump's tariffs
The US government paid more than $80 billion as a refund of duties collected under Donald Trump's tariffs, after the Supreme Court declared them illegal.
The bulk of the payments occurred in May-June, reports Guardian.
In February, the Supreme Court ordered the authorities to return the money to importing companies. For the nine months of the fiscal year, payments reached $81 billion — a year earlier they amounted to $5 billion.
At the same time, the budget deficit for this period grew to $1.367 trillion (+2%), interest payments on the debt exceeded $1 trillion (+14%), military spending increased by 5% against the backdrop of the situation in the Middle East.
The temporary global tariff of 10% expires on July 24. However, the White House is already preparing new duties, citing the need to combat forced labor and excess production capacity.
Recently, Trump threatened European countries with the introduction of new tariffs on their supplies to the US.
Washington views such measures as a response to the EU's plans to introduce a tax on digital services, which will affect American technology companies.
