U.S. tariff chaos

The Supreme Court knocked out most of President Donald Trump’s 2025 tariffs, but the tariff fight did not end with the ruling. The administration is now trying to keep parts of the policy alive through new statutes and lower-court stays. (scotusblog.com) In a 6-3 decision on February 20, 2026, the court said the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 did not let Trump impose sweeping import taxes under his 2025 “fentanyl” and “reciprocal” orders. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the law lets a president regulate imports during an emergency, but not levy tariffs. (cfr.org) The ruling wiped out the broad 10 percent tariff on most imports and higher country tariffs tied to Canada, China, Mexico and others, but it did not settle the cleanup. The justices sent the case back down without spelling out how refunds should work for more than $100 billion already collected. (grantthornton.com) (scotusblog.com) That remand set off a second battle in the Court of International Trade, where more than 2,000 refund suits have been filed by importers including FedEx, Costco, L’Oreal, Dyson and Nissan North America. Customs and Border Protection told one judge in March that its systems were “not able to comply” with the refund order because of the volume and the need to calculate interest. (scotusblog.com) The White House also moved fast to replace the lost tariffs. After the Supreme Court ruling, Trump imposed a new 10 percent global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a temporary power that can last 150 days and go as high as 15 percent. (politico.com) That replacement tariff is now under attack too. On April 10, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade heard arguments over whether Section 122 was meant for today’s trade deficits or for a narrower balance-of-payments problem from the 1970s, and the judges did not say when they would rule. (politico.com) (tradecomplianceresourcehub.com) The legal mess is spilling into trade deals and supply chains. Reed Smith’s tariff tracker said the administration is still reviewing exemptions, tariff stacking rules and the refund process while businesses wait to see which duties survive and which disappear. (tradecomplianceresourcehub.com) Agriculture shows how uneven the fallout has become. Joseph Glauber of the American Enterprise Institute wrote on April 15 that the tariffs pushed U.S. agricultural import duties to their highest level since the early 1930s, while exports to China and Canada fell in part because of retaliation and consumer backlash. (aei.org) Glauber said later bilateral deals still may not restore market access because product rules remain vague, China’s retaliation is still in place, and the Supreme Court erased much of the tariff structure those deals were built around. That leaves exporters, importers and customs officials working through a trade system that keeps changing faster than the cases can be resolved. (aei.org)