Blow to Trump's tariffs: US to halt illegal duty collections on global imports from Tuesday

Three days after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the customs department has announced the date on which the duty collections will end. The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that it will stop collecting tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) from 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT) on Tuesday.In a notice sent to shippers through its Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS), the agency said that from Tuesday onwards, it would deactivate all tariff codes linked to President Donald Trump’s earlier IEEPA orders, Reuters reported. However, the decision to halt these collections comes alongside Trump’s rollout of a fresh 15% global tariff under a separate legal authority, intended to replace the duties invalidated by the Supreme Court earlier last week. At the same time, CBP also did not specify why the tariffs continued to be collected at ports of entry in the days following the court’s ruling. The communication also did not address whether importers would receive refunds.According to the agency, the suspension applies only to IEEPA-related tariffs and other duties introduced by Trump, including those under the Section 232 national security law and the Section 301 unfair trade practices law, remain unaffected."CBP will provide additional guidance to the trade community through CSMS messages as appropriate," the agency said.The Supreme Court's verdict could make more than $175 billion in US Treasury revenue from IEEPA tariffs eligible for refunds, Reuters reported, citing estimates from Penn-Wharton Budget Model economists. Their ground-up forecasting model suggested the IEEPA-based duties had been generating over $500 million a day in gross revenue.