The 150-Day Tariff Clock Ran Out — and a New Regime Started the Same Minute
The 15% balance-of-payments surcharge lapsed by operation of law at 12:01 a.m. on July 24. USTR duties of 10% to 12.5% covering the vast majority of U.S. imports took its place without a gap.
WASHINGTON — The global import surcharge imposed after February's Supreme Court ruling expired at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, exactly 150 days after it took effect, because the statute that authorized it allows nothing longer and Congress did not act to extend it.
It was replaced in the same minute. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative brought into force a two-tier set of duties under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, at rates of 10% and 12.5%, covering roughly 60 economies that together account for the overwhelming majority of goods entering the United States.
Wider than expected
The replacement is broader than the proposal that circulated days earlier, which would have covered fewer than 50 countries at a single rate. As finalized, the coverage extends to nearly all import value, with the higher tier applied to trading partners the administration has identified as maintaining practices it considers unreasonable or discriminatory.
Section 301 is a slower instrument than the ones it succeeds. It requires investigations, comment periods and findings, which is why trade lawyers regard it — along with Section 232 — as the more durable legal footing for a tariff program that has now been rebuilt twice in five months.
Three regimes in one year
For importers, the practical consequence has been an accounting nightmare. Goods entered in January face one legal basis, goods entered in March another, and goods entered after July a third. Refund claims from the invalidated emergency-powers duties are still working their way through the Court of International Trade, which means many companies are simultaneously paying one tariff and litigating another.
Customs brokers have reported a sharp rise in requests for entry-by-entry reviews, and several large retailers told investors that the compliance cost of the transition is now material on its own.
The economics have not changed much
Effective tariff rates ended the summer close to where they started it. What changed is the legal architecture and, with it, the risk profile. A Section 301 program can be challenged, but it cannot expire on a fixed date the way its predecessor did — and it does not depend on a reading of emergency powers that the Supreme Court has now rejected.
