US Imposes 10% Global Import Surcharge With Key Exemptions

The US has imposed a 10% temporary import surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act – not 15% – despite President Trump’s public statements that he intended to hit the legal maximum.

Friday’s proclamation sets the surcharge at 10% ad valorem, effective 12:01 am EST on tomorrow and, crucially, limited it to 150 days, expiring on 24 July, unless Congress votes to extend it.

While Section 122 allows tariffs of up to 15%, no further proclamation or Federal Register notice has yet implemented an increase. For now, customs systems will operate at 10%.

“Goods in transit” are ‘carved out’, or exempt, if they were loaded and moving on the final mode before 12:01 am, and are entered for consumption (or withdrawn from a warehouse) before 12:01 am on Saturday, 28,, a tight four-day clearance window.

The 10% surcharge is not universal. The proclamation carves out a wide range of politically and economically sensitive goods, including critical minerals, energy products, fertilisers, and natural resources not sufficiently available in the US, pharmaceuticals and their ingredients, certain electronics, passenger vehicles and many auto parts, and selected aerospace products.

Goods that enter duty-free under USMCA are also exempt, as are certain textiles and apparel. Imports already subject to Section 232 national security tariffs are also shielded from double-stacking. In short, while the headline rate is 10%, the real impact will vary sharply by product and origin.

The White House also issued a new note on de minimis, which continues to be suspended, while postal shipments will be charged a duty equal to the Section 122 surcharge rate – ie 10% – until the charge expires, or the CBP’s new postal entry process goes live.

The move comes days after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Learning Resources vs Trump, which held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorise the president to impose tariffs. The majority concluded that tariffs are a form of taxation and that the constitution grants Congress, not the executive, the authority to lay and collect duties.

IEEPA permits the president to “regulate” imports during emergencies, the court said, but it does not explicitly authorise tariffs.

That decision eliminates the legal basis for the sweeping emergency and “reciprocal” tariffs imposed under IEEPA over the past year. It does not, however, strip Washington of tariff authority altogether.

Instead, it forces the administration to rely on narrower statutory tools.

Section 122 allows a temporary surcharge to address “fundamental international payments problems”, such as serious balance-of-payments deficits. But it is tightly constrained: capped at 15% and limited to 150 days unless Congress extends it. It is designed as a short-term stabilisation mechanism, not a permanent trade regime.

Beyond Section 122, the United States retains several powerful trade instruments. Section 232 permits tariffs or quotas on national security grounds following a Commerce Department investigation. Section 301 authorises tariffs in response to unfair trade practices after a USTR probe, which is the legal basis for the China tariffs. Safeguard measures under Section 201 also remain available.

The Supreme Court ruling, therefore, marks not the end of US tariffs, but the end of tariff-by-emergency decree. The White House still has tools, but they now come with statutory limits, procedural requirements, and far greater judicial scrutiny.

Under the latest, current rules then, the new surcharge is 10%, it has a July expiry date, and any increase to 15% would require a further formal legal step.