The Trump administration is resisting a court order requiring that the government refund the full $166 billion collected from illegal tariffs, having filed a notice that it intends to challenge the Court of International Trade’s original refund order.

The New York Times says this raises the possibility that only some importers will be completely repaid, which jibes with Trump’s publicly stated opposition to returning any of the money.

In a series of recent legal maneuvers, the government has engaged in a new round of confusing strategies focused on clinging to its policy of imposing levies on international trade, despite repeatedly being stymied by the courts. 

A recent point of friction emerged May 29, as Trump’s Department of Justice filed a motion to compel importers to file individual court actions to obtain refunds of duties they paid on finally liquidated entries under the tariffs unlawfully imposed by the president.

The motion also moved to shield Rodney S. Scott, the top customs official, from testifying about the tariff refund process at a court hearing set for June 9. The DoJ filed an emergency appeal late on June 2, offering to send another official in his place. The Times said that the government hinted to a panel of appellate judges that they would seek a reprieve from the Supreme Court if necessary.

Richard K. Eaton, a judge on the federal Court of International Trade, on March 4 told U.S. Customs & Border Patrol it must start paying back importers using its existing systems — with interest — in an order covering all affected importers, not just those who had taken their cases to court. But the CBP struggled to figure out how to handle refunds to about 330,000 importers, representing tariffs paid on some 53 million entries, and instead hastily introduced a new tool in its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system, the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE), which came online in April.