U.S. China tariff chaos
- U.S. trade policy toward China looks increasingly inconsistent, producing contradictory decisions and official confusion. - The administration began accepting refund applications for more than $160bn in tariffs while not appealing a key court order. - Washington also maintains a 25% duty on certain semiconductors while probing pharmaceutical tariffs, deepening legal uncertainty ( ).
Washington is refunding more than $160 billion in tariffs it says were collected illegally even as other China-related duties stay in place. (forbes.com) U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened its CAPE refund portal on Monday, April 20, for tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the emergency law the Supreme Court rejected for tariff use on February 20, 2026. TIME reported the first phase covers unliquidated entries and duties finalized within the past 80 days. (time.com) Forbes said the refunds total about $166 billion for roughly 300,000 importers, with interest, and only the “importer of record” can file the claim. UBS chief economist Paul Donovan said consumer prices are unlikely to fall quickly, and Walmart finance chief John Rainey said the money is not expected to arrive fast. (forbes.com) The legal split comes from how the tariffs were built. The Supreme Court struck down the 2025 emergency tariffs, but older China tariffs imposed under Section 301 and sector tariffs imposed under Section 232 were not part of that ruling. (congress.gov) Congressional Research Service said the United States and China had pushed average two-way tariff rates as high as 164% and 146% in mid-April 2025 before later reductions, and that U.S.-China talks since 2025 have not produced a tariff deal. As of February 20, 2026, CRS put average tariff rates at about 34% on Chinese goods entering the United States and 31% on U.S. goods entering China, excluding some exemptions and Section 232 actions. (congress.gov) That leaves businesses sorting through a stack of different rules. The House of Commons Library said a 25% U.S. tariff still applies to steel and aluminum imports, while pharmaceuticals can enter tariff-free under the U.S.-U.K. deal and semiconductors could still face future U.S. tariff action. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) On pharmaceuticals, the Commerce Department opened a Section 232 national-security investigation on April 1, 2025, covering finished drugs, active ingredients, and key starting materials. The White House then said on April 2, 2026, that Commerce had delivered its report and President Donald Trump ordered action to adjust pharmaceutical imports. (federalregister.gov) (whitehouse.gov) On semiconductors, the U.S. Trade Representative says a separate Section 301 investigation into China’s semiconductor industry has been open since December 23, 2024. Separate USTR tariff increases from December 2024 also raised rates on some China-linked inputs, including certain tungsten products to 25% and solar wafers and polysilicon to 50% starting January 1, 2025. (ustr.gov 1) (ustr.gov 2) The courts are still shaping the refund process too. Buchalter said the Federal Circuit on March 2, 2026, denied the government’s request for a stay and sent the main refund litigation back to the Court of International Trade, where more than 2,000 similar cases had been paused. (buchalter.com) So the current U.S. China tariff picture is not one policy but several at once: one set of duties is being unwound through refunds, older China tariffs remain on the books, and separate national-security cases are still adding new trade restrictions. (time.com) (congress.gov)
