Trump rebuilds tariff wall with taxes
- President Donald Trump’s trade team opened Section 301 hearings Tuesday to build new tariffs after the Supreme Court voided his broad emergency-duty plan. - The forced-labor case covers 60 economies tied to 99% of U.S. imports, while a second overcapacity probe targets 16 partners including China. - Refund fights are still running through Customs’ new CAPE portal and the trade courts. (cbp.gov)
The Trump administration opened new tariff hearings Tuesday, starting a legal rebuild of import taxes the Supreme Court struck down in February. (abcnews.com) (ustr.gov) The Office of the United States Trade Representative is holding April 28-29 hearings on whether 60 economies failed to police goods made with forced labor. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer launched those Section 301 cases in March. (ustr.gov 1) (ustr.gov 2) A second Section 301 track starts hearings on May 5 and can run through May 8 on manufacturing overcapacity. That probe covers 16 trading partners, including China, the European Union and Japan. (ustr.gov 1) (ustr.gov 2) The new cases matter because the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on February 20 that Trump could not use the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that IEEPA does not authorize tariff power. (cfr.org) (cnbc.com) Trump answered that loss with temporary import taxes, but the stopgap levies expire in less than three months, according to the Associated Press. The administration is now shifting to Section 301, a 1974 trade law built for country-by-country findings of unfair practices. (abcnews.com) (ustr.gov) Importers are fighting the old tariffs on a second front: refunds. U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the first phase of its CAPE refund tool on April 20 for certain unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation. (cbp.gov 1) (cbp.gov 2) CAPE runs inside the Automated Commercial Environment portal and requires importers or brokers to upload a CSV declaration listing entry numbers. Each filing can include up to 9,999 entries, and Customs says refunds will include interest if claims are validated. (cbp.gov) (cbp.gov) The refund queue is large. Customs said in court filings cited by CNBC that more than 330,000 importers paid about $166 billion on more than 53 million shipments, and 56,497 importers were registered by April 14 for roughly $127 billion in eligible refunds, including interest. (cnbc.com) Importers and foreign governments are expected to challenge the replacement tariffs too, and the Court of International Trade is already hearing disputes over Trump’s temporary 10% global tariff. The tariff wall is back in court even as the administration rebuilds it at the hearing table. (politico.com) (abcnews.com)
