A U.S. judge will hold a closed-door meeting with government lawyers on Friday local time to seek a process to refund up to $175 billion in illegally imposed tariffs. A court official described the meeting as a "settlement conference." U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton will meet with lawyers representing the customs agency responsible for refunding more than 300,000 importers who paid tariffs that were ruled unconstitutional last month.

The process for refunding U.S. President Donald Trump's signature tariffs is unprecedented in scale and will require manual review of tens of millions of tariff payments, government lawyers say.

U.S. courts are generally considered open to the public, but judges sometimes hold private meetings with parties to discuss trial arrangements or how to handle sensitive information.

The schedule on the U.S. Court of International Trade website describes Friday's meeting as a "closed session." Asked why the meeting was closed to the public, court clerk Gina Justice said it was a "settlement meeting."

The case that Eaton is overseeing to establish a tax refund process is brought by a company called Atmus Filtration Inc. filed by the importer. The company said in court filings that it paid $11 million in illegal tariffs.

Atmus' attorneys were able to participate in Friday's meeting remotely, according to court records. It's unclear why the Atmus case, filed last week, has become a key case in determining how some 2,000 duty refund cases are litigated.

Judge Eaton said he was appointed by the court to hear the cases and wanted a process that would not require going to court.

Judge Eaton issued a far-reaching order in the Atmus case on Wednesday, directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin using the agency’s existing internal procedures to refund illegally imposed duties to hundreds of thousands of importers. The order makes it clear that it applies to all importers, not just Atmus.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on February 20 that a series of Trump's tariff measures were overturned. The court believed that Trump had exceeded his authority and subverted a key pillar of his economic policy. The court offered no guidance on the refund issue, and dissenting Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned the process could be a "messy mess."

The vast majority of importers are small businesses, and many worry that the refund process can be time-consuming and laborious.

Eaton said he expected lawyers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to attend a meeting at 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, which he called a "workshop," to address how to streamline paperwork and issue refunds for 79 million shipments.

"I don't think this is going to cause confusion for anybody because I know you're going to be trying to find a solution," Eaton said at Wednesday's hearing. "So on Friday, we're going to hear at least some of Customs' initial thoughts on how to move forward with this."

A lawyer involved in other trade chargeback cases said they believed the meeting would lead to a process that could be unveiled as early as Friday and would provide the vast majority of importers with relatively quick refunds without the need for litigation.

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