A U.S. trade judge on Tuesday urged Trump administration officials to speed up the return of more than $10 billion in tariffs that were imposed and later ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court. But the judge stopped short of issuing a new order forcing them to do so.

Judge Richard Eaton of the Court of International Trade in Manhattan said delays in processing some refund claims have led to "increasing inequities" between large importers, who hire customs brokers to help them claim refunds through the government's refund system, and smaller businesses that do not.

Eaton called the inequality an "unintended consequence" of the government's creation of a mechanism to refund $166 billion in illegal tariffs and said he did not believe the government would seek to favor larger importers.

But he said the payments were delayed by the Trump administration's decision to appeal its March 4 order requiring the government to return all tariffs.

"It's time to refund all tariffs," Eaton said. "One way to accomplish that is for the government not to appeal my order."

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stated that it has accepted and started processing nearly 90 billion US dollars in tax refund applications. It is expected that the total tax refund in the first phase may be as high as 127 billion US dollars. These tax refund cases are relatively simple.

CBP official Susan Thomas testified at Tuesday's hearing that $23 billion of the rebates have been completed and turned over to the Treasury Department, which distributes them to importers.

The focus of Tuesday's hearing was the more complex and older so-called "liquidation tariff." Importers typically pay an estimated tariff up front, and about a year later, CBP finalizes the tariff amount, known as the liquidation amount.

Eaton's March 4 order required the Trump administration to refund cleared tariffs, but he paused enforcement of the order to give the government a chance to establish a system for processing refunds. He convened a hearing on Tuesday to assess whether the moratorium should be lifted because of differences between large and small importers.

Thomas said U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to process refunds for cleared duties at a later date.

But Eaton questions whether the government actually intends to process those refunds now that the Trump administration has appealed his March 4 ruling, arguing that a federal judge does not have the authority to issue a nationwide injunction.

To circumvent this potential problem, companies have asked Eaton to certify class action lawsuits against all importers who pay illegal duties. Setting up an importer class action lawsuit may allow Eaton to issue a single ruling that applies to all importers, thereby streamlining the refund process without requiring each importer to file a lawsuit.

Judge Eaton did not rule at Tuesday's hearing on whether to approve the class action or lift the stay on his March 4 order.