TRADE ALERT
- Termination of IEEPA duties
On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court released its decision concerning whether International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) grants the President independent power to impose tariffs on imports from any country, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time. In its majority opinion, the Court held that the power to impose tariffs is a taxing power, which belongs to the legislative branch of Government. The President can impose tariffs only under clear, unambiguous delegation from Congress. The text of the IEEPA statute does not provide such clear unambiguous delegation.
On February 22, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a notice announcing the termination of the collection of the additional ad valorem duties imposed pursuant to IEEPA. According to this notice, the IEEPA duties will cease to be effective at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time on February 24, 2026. Please see this notice in the attached file.
What can you do?
Vietnamese exporters that exported products subject to IEEPA duties under DDP terms and act as the foreign importer of record or that have affiliated U.S. importers should collect their entry information and identify which entries have been liquidated and the corresponding liquidation dates, as well as the expected liquidation dates for any entries that remain un-liquidated.
Importers of record may then consider filing protests with CBP for all liquidated entries subject to the Trump IEEPA tariffs covered by the Supreme Court’s decision, within the 180-day statutory period from the date of liquidation.
For entries that have not yet been liquidated, importers of record may submit corrected entry summaries to seek a refund of the IEEPA duties.
- Imposition of a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems Under Section 122
In light of the termination of the duties imposed under IEEPA, the White House has announced that, effective at 12:01 a.m. EST on February 24, a new 10% tariff will be imposed for a period of 150 days under Section 122 on all products, except for
- Goods in transit (9903.03.02): Articles the product of any country that (1) were loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit prior to entry into the United States, before 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 24, 2026; and (2) are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 28, 2026
- Certain products serve the needs of the U.S. Economy (9903.03.03), including:
- certain critical minerals, metals used in currency and bullion, energy, and energy products;
- natural resources and fertilizers that cannot be grown, mined, or otherwise produced in the United States or grown, mined, or otherwise produced in sufficient quantities to meet domestic demand;
- certain agricultural products, including beef, tomatoes, and oranges;
- pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients;
- certain electronics;
- passenger vehicles, certain light trucks, certain medium and heavy-duty vehicles, buses, and certain parts of passenger vehicles, light trucks, heavy-duty vehicles, and buses;
- certain aerospace products; and
- informational materials (e.g., books), donations, and accompanied baggage.
Please see details in the attached file
- Religious and tropical items (9903.03.04): 11 entries covering items like religious texts and tropical commodities.
- Civil aircraft (9903.03.05): parts and components for civil aircraft
- Section 232 products (9903.03.06): Articles of iron or steel, derivative articles of iron or steel, articles of aluminum, derivative articles of aluminum, passenger vehicles (sedans, sport utility vehicles, crossover utility vehicles, minivans and cargo vans) and light trucks and parts of passenger vehicles (sedans, sport utility vehicles, crossover utility vehicles, minivans and cargo vans) and light trucks, semiconductor articles, semi-finished copper and intensive copper derivative products, wood products, or medium- and heavy-duty vehicles or medium- and heavy-duty vehicle parts, of any country, as provided in subdivision (aa)(v)
- Canada (9903.03.07) and Mexico (9903.03.08): products that are USMCA-compliant, and
- CAFTA-DR textiles (9903.03.09): Textiles and apparel articles that enter duty-free as a good of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement
- Donations (9903.03.10): articles for disaster relief and charitable purposes, such as food, clothing and medicine, intended to be used to relieve human suffering
- Informational materials (9903.03.11): informational materials, including but not limited to publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks and news wire feeds.
Pursuant to this Announcement, on February 23, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a notice announcing the imposition of an additional 10% ad valorem duty on imported articles from all countries for a period of 150 days under Section 122, unless specifically exempt, i.e., from 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on February 24, 2026, through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time July 24, 2026.
What can you do?
- Regarding the tariff under Section 122, you may wish to carefully review the subject products and products subject to exclusion as specified above.
- Follow up on developments regarding the Section 122 duties in order to plan the export of products to the United States, as President Donald Trump announced on February 21, 2026, that he is planning to increase the new global tariff rate to 15 percent.
- Furthermore, the President has directed the Office of the United States Trade Representative to use its section 301 authority to investigate certain unreasonable and discriminatory acts, policies, and practices that burden or restrict U.S. commerce
In light of Vietnamese exporter’s prior exposure to Section 301 investigations relating to timber and currency devaluation, this announcement warrants particular attention from Vietnamese exporters as it signals the potential expansion of Section 301 enforcement actions.
Please see the link below
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/02/ending-certain-tariff-actions
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