Even after the United States has put in place a digital system to refund the ‘reciprocal tariff’ it had collected after that country’s Supreme Court struck down that decision, exporters who had shipped those products will not be its direct beneficiaries.

Only US buyers are eligible to claim the refund and their overseas sellers who had supplied those products will have to enter into direct negotiations with individual importers to see if some of the extra cost borne by the exporters can be refunded.

According to Delhi-based Global Trade Research Initiative, direct $10–12 billion of refunds are linked to goods sourced from India and rebate-sharing, price revisions, or future order gain, through direct negotiations with US buyers, can only help Indian companies recoup that extra cost.

GTRI estimates that about 53% of India’s exports to the U.S.—mainly textiles and apparel—faced these high tariffs, making them the biggest contributors to refunds among Indian exporters. Of the estimated $12 billion linked to India, textiles and apparel may account for about $4 billion, engineering goods another $4 billion, and chemicals about $2 billion, with smaller shares from other sectors, a report published by GTRI said.

“Indian exporters will not get refunds automatically. Payments go only to U.S. importers, and exporters have no legal right to claim them. Indian exporters, therefore, have no direct legal route to claim refunds”, it stated.

Recovery will depend on commercial negotiation: GTRI

GTRI points out that any recovery will depend on commercial negotiation and wants Indian exporters to proactively engage U.S. buyers to seek a share of refunded duties, especially where earlier contracts were priced on a duty-paid basis.

“Indian exporters must negotiate with U.S. buyers. They should seek a share of refunds where earlier prices included tariff costs. This can be done by reopening contracts, adding rebate-sharing clauses, asking for price revisions or credit notes, and using invoices and tariff data to show how costs were absorbed. Exporters with stronger bargaining power—especially in textiles and engineering goods—may secure better terms in future orders”, the report says.

The reciprocal tariff regime, announced by US President Donald Trump began at 10% on April 2, 2025 and was rapidly escalated. Rates for India rose to 25% by August 7, 2025 and to 50% by August 28, remaining at that level until early February 2026 when India-US negotiations saw tariffs getting reduced to 18%. However, before the new tariffs could fully take effect, the US Supreme Court ruling on February 20 invalidated the entire framework, making the tariffs legally void and triggering refunds.