Tariff Power Explorer

The Constitution gives Congress the power to lay and collect taxes and duties, and the Supreme Court has said the power to impose tariffs is clearly a branch of that taxing power. Supreme Court

The Main Tariff Laws at a Glance

• The U.S. Court of International Trade has exclusive jurisdiction over civil suits against the United States arising out of laws providing for revenue from imports, or for tariffs and duties on imports for reasons other than raising revenue, including their administration and enforcement. U.S. Code
• The Court of International Trade has exclusive jurisdiction over suits under the antidumping and countervailing duty review law, Section 516A of the Tariff Act of 1930. The catch-all jurisdiction doesn’t cover antidumping or countervailing duty determinations reviewable under that law or by a binational panel. U.S. Code
• The Supreme Court has said tariffs operate directly on U.S. importers to raise revenue for the Treasury, citing the law that requires the importer of record to deposit the duties. Supreme Court

Section 232: National Security

• The Commerce secretary must open a Section 232 investigation when another agency asks, when an interested party applies, or on the secretary’s own motion, to find how imports of an article affect national security. U.S. Code
• During the investigation, Commerce must consult the Defense secretary and, if appropriate and after reasonable notice, hold public hearings or otherwise let interested parties present information. U.S. Code
• Commerce must send the president a report of its findings and its recommendations for action or inaction within 270 days after the investigation starts, and publish the parts without classified or proprietary information in the Federal Register. U.S. Code
• If Commerce finds that imports of an article threaten to impair national security, the president has 90 days after receiving the report to decide whether to agree. If the president agrees, the president also decides, in that time, the nature and duration of the action that, in the president’s judgment, must be taken to adjust imports of the article and its derivatives. U.S. Code
• The president must put an action in place within 15 days after deciding to act, and must send Congress a written statement of reasons within 30 days after deciding. U.S. Code
• The Supreme Court contrasted Section 232’s sweeping language, which gives the president discretion, with that of IEEPA (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act), and said Section 232’s explicit reference to duties makes it natural to read the law as authorizing duties. Supreme Court
• For imports of petroleum or petroleum products, a Section 232 action ends if Congress enacts a disapproval resolution. U.S. Code

Section 301: Unfair Foreign Trade Practices

• The U.S. trade representative (USTR) must generally act when a foreign country denies U.S. rights under a trade agreement, or its practice violates one or is unjustifiable and burdens U.S. commerce. USTR may act when a practice is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens U.S. commerce. U.S. Code
• Any interested person can petition USTR, which has 45 days to decide whether to open an investigation. USTR can also open one on its own, with notice in the Federal Register. U.S. Code
• When an investigation opens, USTR must ask the foreign country for consultations. U.S. Code
• Unless quick action is required, USTR must give at least 30 days’ notice and let interested persons present views before deciding, including at a public hearing if anyone asks. U.S. Code
• USTR generally must decide within 12 months after an investigation starts. A case involving a trade agreement is due 30 days after dispute settlement ends or 18 months after the start, whichever comes first. U.S. Code
• USTR must publish each determination in the Federal Register, with a description of the facts it rests on. U.S. Code
• USTR can impose duties or other import restrictions on the foreign country’s goods, and fees or restrictions on its services, for as long as USTR determines appropriate, subject to any specific direction from the president. U.S. Code
• A required Section 301 action must be designed to affect the country’s goods or services in an amount equivalent in value to the burden that country puts on U.S. commerce. U.S. Code
• USTR must put an action in place within 30 days after deciding, and in some cases can delay it by up to 180 days. U.S. Code
• A Section 301 action ends after four years unless the petitioner or the U.S. industry that benefits asks, during the last 60 days, for it to continue. A request triggers a review that includes the action’s effects on the economy and consumers. U.S. Code
• USTR isn’t required to take a mandatory action in some cases, each of which USTR must find, including when the foreign country agrees to eliminate the practice, when it is impossible for the country to fix the problem but it agrees to provide satisfactory compensatory trade benefits, or when acting would cause serious harm to U.S. national security. U.S. Code
• USTR can modify or end an action, subject to any specific direction from the president, if one of those conditions applies, the burden on U.S. commerce has grown or shrunk, or a discretionary action is no longer appropriate. Before doing so, USTR must consult the petitioner and the affected U.S. industry and let other interested persons comment. USTR must promptly publish notice of any modification or termination, and the reasons for it, in the Federal Register and report them in writing to Congress. U.S. Code

Section 201: Safeguards Against Import Surges

• A trade association, company, union or group of workers representing a U.S. industry can petition the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The president, the U.S. trade representative (USTR), the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the ITC itself can also start a case. U.S. Code
• The ITC decides whether an article is being imported in such increased quantities that the imports are a substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat of it, to the U.S. industry making a like or directly competitive product. A substantial cause is one that is important and not less than any other cause. U.S. Code
• The ITC must publish notice in the Federal Register and hold public hearings where interested parties and consumers can present evidence and be heard. U.S. Code
• The ITC must decide within 120 days after a petition, or 150 days if the case is extraordinarily complicated. Each deadline is longer (180 or 210 days) when the petition alleges critical circumstances. U.S. Code
• The ITC must report to the president within 180 days after a petition (240 days if critical circumstances are alleged). U.S. Code
• USTR leads an interagency body that recommends to the president what action to take. USTR
• After an ITC report finding serious injury or its threat, the president must take the action the president determines will help the industry adjust to import competition and provide greater economic and social benefits than costs. U.S. Code
• The president generally must act within 60 days after receiving the ITC’s report (50 days if the president proclaimed provisional relief), or within 30 days after a supplemental report the president requested. U.S. Code
• The president must send Congress a description of the action and the reasons on the day it is taken. If the action differs from the ITC’s recommendation, or the president takes none, a joint resolution enacted within 90 days after that document reaches Congress puts the ITC’s recommendation into effect. U.S. Code
• A safeguard can last up to four years, counting any provisional relief. The president can extend it after a new affirmative ITC finding, if the action is still needed to prevent or remedy the serious injury and there is evidence the industry is adjusting, but never beyond eight years in total. U.S. Code
• A safeguard can’t raise a duty to more than 50% ad valorem (a percentage of the goods’ value) above the rate in effect when the action is taken. U.S. Code
• A safeguard duty can’t exceed what is needed to prevent or remedy the serious injury, and one lasting more than one year must be phased down at regular intervals. U.S. Code

Section 122: Balance-of-Payments Surcharges

• Section 122 says the president must proclaim a surcharge, quotas or both when fundamental international payments problems require special import measures to restrict imports: to deal with large and serious U.S. balance-of-payments deficits, to prevent an imminent and significant depreciation of the dollar, or to cooperate with other countries in correcting an international balance-of-payments disequilibrium. U.S. Code
• A Section 122 surcharge can last no more than 150 days, unless Congress extends that period by law, and can’t exceed 15% ad valorem. U.S. Code
• The surcharge is added to any duties already imposed and is treated as a regular customs duty. U.S. Code
• If the president decides restrictions would be contrary to the national interest, the president can decline to proclaim them but must immediately inform Congress. U.S. Code
• The president can also set temporary quotas, but only if U.S. trade or monetary agreements permit them and only to the extent a surcharge can’t deal with the imbalance. U.S. Code
• The restrictions must follow the principle of nondiscriminatory treatment, but the president can aim them at one or more countries with large or persistent balance-of-payments surpluses and exempt all others. U.S. Code
• The president can suspend, change or end a Section 122 proclamation at any time, during the first 150 days or any extension Congress passes. U.S. Code

The restrictions must apply broadly and uniformly across products, with only these exceptions: U.S. Code

• Articles the president excludes for the needs of the U.S. economy, limited to domestic supply being unavailable at reasonable prices, the necessary importation of raw materials, avoiding serious disruptions in the supply of imported goods, and similar factors U.S. Code
• Uniform exceptions where restrictions would be unnecessary or ineffective, such as for goods already restricted, goods in transit or goods under binding contract U.S. Code

The restrictions can’t be used to protect individual U.S. industries from import competition. U.S. Code

IEEPA and the Supreme Court

• In Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, decided Feb. 20, 2026, the Supreme Court concluded that the terms of IEEPA (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act) do not authorize tariffs. Supreme Court
• The emergency tariffs the Supreme Court reviewed were imposed under IEEPA after the president declared national emergencies over drug trafficking and over “large and persistent” trade deficits. Supreme Court
• IEEPA powers can be used only to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat, with its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to U.S. national security, foreign policy or the economy, and only after the president declares a national emergency about that threat. U.S. Code
• A presidential proclamation declaring a national emergency must be sent to Congress immediately and published in the Federal Register. U.S. Code
• Under IEEPA, the president can regulate, prevent or prohibit the importation or exportation of, and other dealings in, property in which a foreign country or foreign national has an interest. U.S. Code
• The Supreme Court agreed with the Federal Circuit that V.O.S. Selections, a suit five small businesses and 12 states filed in the Court of International Trade, fell within that court’s exclusive jurisdiction. Supreme Court
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) handles the clearance of imported goods and recommends that importers learn its policies and procedures before importing. CBP
• CBP built a function called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE), within its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system, to process valid refund requests for IEEPA duties, as authorized by court order or applicable law. CBP is adding it in phases, starting with certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation. Importers of record and authorized customs brokers file the requests. CBP
• CBP consolidates refunds by importer of record, or by the party the importer of record designates on CBP Form 4811. Refunds follow the rules for liquidating entries, including netting all overpayments and underpayments for the whole entry, and can be diverted to offset the importer’s legally fixed and undisputed debts to the United States. CBP
• CBP warns that scammers are using emails, notices and social media to try to get company and personal information from importers during the refund process. CBP

Antidumping and Countervailing Duties

• In these laws, the “administering authority” is the Commerce secretary and the “Commission” is the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). U.S. Code
• Dumping means selling goods, or likely selling them, at less than fair value. U.S. Code
• The comparison price, called normal value, is generally the price at which the same kind of product is first sold for consumption in the exporting country, its home market. U.S. Code
• An antidumping duty applies when Commerce finds that a class or kind of foreign goods is being, or is likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value, and the ITC finds that a U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by those imports. U.S. Code
• The antidumping duty equals the amount by which the goods’ normal value exceeds their export price, and it is added to any other duty. U.S. Code
• The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the organization established by the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, and a WTO member is a country or separate customs territory to which the United States applies that agreement. U.S. Code
• A countervailing duty applies when Commerce finds that a foreign government or public entity is providing a countervailable subsidy for the goods. For goods from a WTO member, or from a country the president has found to have equivalent obligations under the Subsidies Agreement or qualifies under an older agreement, the ITC must also find material injury or its threat. U.S. Code
• The countervailing duty equals the net countervailable subsidy, and it is added to any other duty. U.S. Code
• An antidumping case starts when an interested party files a petition with Commerce on behalf of a U.S. industry, or when Commerce decides on its own that a formal investigation is warranted. The petitioner must file a copy with the ITC the same day. Commerce generally has 20 days to examine the accuracy and adequacy of the petition’s evidence and decide whether it alleges what the law requires and was filed on behalf of the industry. U.S. Code

Only these interested parties can file the petition: U.S. Code

• A U.S. manufacturer, producer or wholesaler of a like product U.S. Code
• A certified or recognized union, or a group of workers, representing that U.S. industry U.S. Code
• A trade or business association whose members mostly make or wholesale the product in the U.S. U.S. Code
• An association made up mostly of the parties above U.S. Code
• For a processed farm product, a coalition or trade association representing processors, or processors together with producers or growers U.S. Code

Deadlines and review

• In an antidumping case, the ITC must make a preliminary decision, within 45 days after the petition is filed, on whether there is a reasonable indication of injury. A negative decision ends the investigation. U.S. Code
• Commerce generally makes its preliminary antidumping decision within 140 days after the investigation starts. U.S. Code
• Commerce generally makes its final antidumping decision within 75 days after its preliminary one. It can postpone to no later than 135 days after publishing notice of the preliminary decision, if exporters accounting for a significant proportion of exports ask after an affirmative preliminary decision, or the petitioner asks after a negative one. After an affirmative preliminary decision by Commerce, the ITC’s final injury decision is due by the later of 120 days after that preliminary decision or 45 days after Commerce’s final one. U.S. Code
• A countervailing duty case starts the same way, with a petition from an interested party on behalf of an industry, filed with Commerce and the same day with the ITC. U.S. Code
• In a countervailing duty case, the ITC’s preliminary injury decision is due within 45 days after the petition is filed, and Commerce’s preliminary subsidy decision generally within 65 days after it starts the investigation. U.S. Code
• Five years after an antidumping or countervailing duty order is published, Commerce and the ITC must review whether revoking it would likely lead to dumping or subsidies, and material injury, continuing or coming back. U.S. Code
• The Court of International Trade has exclusive jurisdiction over suits under the antidumping and countervailing duty review law, Section 516A of the Tariff Act of 1930. The catch-all jurisdiction doesn’t cover antidumping or countervailing duty determinations reviewable under that law or by a binational panel. U.S. Code
• A party to the proceeding can generally challenge a final determination or an order in the Court of International Trade by filing a summons within 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register, and a complaint within 30 days after that. Different timing applies to goods from free trade area countries. U.S. Code
• If binational panel review of a determination is requested under the North American agreement or the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the panel reviews it instead of the Court of International Trade, with limited exceptions. U.S. Code

Section 338: Discrimination Against U.S. Commerce

• The president can proclaim new or additional duties on a country’s products after finding, as a fact, that the country discriminates in fact against U.S. commerce in a way that puts it at a disadvantage compared with any other foreign country’s commerce, or imposes on U.S. products an unreasonable charge or limitation not equally enforced on the like articles of every foreign country, and that the public interest will be served. U.S. Code
• The rate is whatever the president determines will offset the burden or disadvantage, not to exceed 50% ad valorem or its equivalent, and it applies starting 30 days after the proclamation. U.S. Code
• If the country keeps up or increases its discrimination after a proclamation, the president can bar its products from import. U.S. Code
• A proclamation can cover all or part of a country, and the president can suspend, revoke or amend it. U.S. Code

Who Pays a Tariff

• The Supreme Court has said tariffs operate directly on U.S. importers to raise revenue for the Treasury, citing the law that requires the importer of record to deposit the duties. Supreme Court
• The importer of record must be the owner or purchaser of the goods, or a licensed customs broker the owner, purchaser or consignee designates. U.S. Code
• The importer of record must deposit the estimated duties and fees with CBP at the time of entry, or at a later time set by regulation but no later than 12 working days after entry or release. U.S. Code
• Even when a customs broker handles the entry, the importer of record is ultimately responsible for all duties, taxes and fees that apply. CBP
• When an entry is liquidated or reliquidated, CBP collects any additional duties and fees owed, with interest, or refunds any excess deposit, with interest. U.S. Code

Challenging a Tariff in Court

• The U.S. Court of International Trade has exclusive jurisdiction over civil suits against the United States arising out of laws providing for revenue from imports, or for tariffs and duties on imports for reasons other than raising revenue, including their administration and enforcement. U.S. Code
• A suit under this catch-all jurisdiction must be filed within two years after the claim first arises. The court’s other kinds of cases have their own deadlines. U.S. Code
• For example, a suit contesting the denial of a protest under Section 515 of the Tariff Act of 1930 must be filed within 180 days after notice of the denial is mailed, or after the protest is denied by operation of law. U.S. Code
• The Court of International Trade has exclusive jurisdiction over suits under the antidumping and countervailing duty review law, Section 516A of the Tariff Act of 1930. The catch-all jurisdiction doesn’t cover antidumping or countervailing duty determinations reviewable under that law or by a binational panel. U.S. Code
• A party to the proceeding can generally challenge a final determination or an order in the Court of International Trade by filing a summons within 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register, and a complaint within 30 days after that. Different timing applies to goods from free trade area countries. U.S. Code
• If binational panel review of a determination is requested under the North American agreement or the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the panel reviews it instead of the Court of International Trade, with limited exceptions. U.S. Code
• A final decision of the Court of International Trade can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. U.S. Code

Related GovFacts Articles

• What Are Tariffs and How Do They Work?
• Can the Courts Stop President Trump’s Tariffs?
• The 150-Day Clock on Trump’s New Tariffs—And What Legal Authorities Come Next
• Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties: America’s Trade Defenses
• Section 122 Tariffs Are Now Law. Here’s What That Means for Prices.