CORRIN, Neb. — The Corrin Area Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that the federal tariff refunds now flowing to importers belong to consumers, and that it is holding the money on their behalf until they return a form, which the chamber has not yet been able to deliver.
Since the Supreme Court struck down the emergency-powers tariffs on Feb. 20, the government has refunded between $115 billion and $158 billion to importers of record, depending on the measure, according to the Peterson Institute tracker. The refunds go to the companies that filed the entries, not the shoppers who paid higher prices on the goods.
“The refund belongs to the people who paid it,” said Brenda Kohler, 52, the chamber’s president, from behind a folding table in the lobby of the Corrin Feed & Grain building, where the chamber has had its office since 1988. “The people who paid it are in our office on Tuesdays, from 9 to 2, and have been asked to bring a pen.”
The chamber’s position rests on a figure from the Kiel Institute, which found that foreign exporters absorbed about 4 percent of recent U.S. tariff costs, leaving about 96 percent to be paid by American buyers. Kohler said the number proves the refunds should go to consumers, and that the chamber, which has about 140 members and a $6,000 annual budget, is the closest thing consumers have to a mailing address.
Under the chamber’s plan, each shopper would file Form 14, a single-page request that asks for the name of the consumer, the date of the purchase, the price paid and, in a space marked “other,” a reason the consumer believes they are owed money. The chamber has printed 3,000 copies. Seven have been returned. Two were from the chamber’s own board.
Asked how much of the refund the chamber itself held, Kohler said the question “misunderstands where the money is,” and that the chamber was “holding it in trust for the public, the way a bank holds a deposit.” Asked how much of that trust the public had received, she said, “Some of it is on its way.”
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said by phone from a car wash that the chamber’s position was the only position consistent with common sense. “If consumers paid the tariff, the refund goes to the consumer,” Brickhouse said. “If the chamber has the refund, the consumer has the chamber. That is a relationship. It’s just common sense.”
The Center for Measured Outcomes estimated that the chamber’s holdings, if they equaled the full refund, would be about 19 million times its annual budget. Its director, Dr. Marjorie Teller, said the estimate was preliminary, and that the Center had applied for funding to study whether the chamber’s holdings were a refund, a deposit or a membership benefit.
The chamber has scheduled a second Form 14 drive for Nov. 4, a Wednesday, which Kohler said she expects to be “a much fuller lobby.” The drive will be held in the same room, under the same banner, which still reads “YOUR REFUND, OUR RESPONSIBILITY.”