US Customs has refunded about $100bn of struck down tariffs while replacement duties run under three laws

The United States Supreme Court decided Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump on 20 February 2026, holding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 does not authorise the President to impose additional tariffs. US Customs and Border Protection recorded the holding in those terms in a rule published on 24 June 2026. Al Jazeera reported that the vote was 6 to 3 and that the President denounced the six justices in the majority as fools and as lapdogs for the Democratic Party.

The widely repeated version of what followed is that the tariffs were cancelled. The documents show something more precise: the money is going back to importers under a court supervised process, and the duties themselves have been rebuilt twice under statutes the court did not touch.

CBP set out the scale in a Federal Register notice published on 8 July 2026, seeking clearance for the paperwork the refunds require. Duties assessed under IEEPA between 3 February 2025 and 24 February 2026 came to an estimated $166 billion, spread across more than 53 million entry summaries. The refunds flow from an injunctive order issued by the US Court of International Trade on 7 April 2026 in Euro-Notions Florida, Inc. v. United States, court number 25-00595. Importers lodge spreadsheets of entry summary numbers, which CBP processes through a tool it calls the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries. CBP estimated 330,000 respondents lodging 495,000 responses a year at 495,000 hours of burden, plus a further 33,000 replacement filings at 16,500 hours, a total of 511,500 hours. Comments are open until 8 September 2026.

By early August the payments were well advanced. Al Jazeera reported on 6 August 2026 that about $100 billion had been returned, out of $128.68 billion earmarked as potential and certified refunds, which is more than three quarters of that pool. Brandon Lord, executive director of CBP's trade policy and programs directorate, said in a court filing that the agency's financial accounting system received updates from Treasury indicating the certified refunds were being regularly dispersed. The two headline figures are not the same number. Collections were put at $166 billion; the earmarked refund pool is $128.68 billion. Neither the CBP notice nor the reporting explains the gap of roughly $37 billion, and it is not clear from the public record whether the balance is unclaimed, out of scope, or still being assessed.

What happened to the tariffs themselves is the part most coverage skips. On 20 February 2026, the day of the decision, the President signed two instruments. Executive Order 14389, Ending Certain Tariff Actions, revoked the additional ad valorem duties imposed by nine earlier orders, covering Canada, Mexico, China, Venezuela, Brazil, Russia, Cuba and Iran, plus the reciprocal tariffs order, while expressly leaving the underlying national emergency declarations and all non-tariff measures in force. Proclamation 11012 then imposed a temporary import surcharge of 10 per cent on most imports under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a balance of payments provision. It exempted critical minerals, energy products, pharmaceuticals, certain electronics, vehicles and parts, certain aerospace goods, and articles already carrying section 232 duties, among others. It took effect at 12.01am on 24 February 2026 and, because section 122 limits such a surcharge to 150 days, was written to expire at 12.01am on 24 July 2026 unless Congress extended it.

Congress did not extend it. A notice from the Office of the United States Trade Representative published on 28 July 2026 imposed duties under section 301 of the same Act on 60 economies, on the ground that they had failed to impose and effectively enforce prohibitions on imports of goods produced with forced labour. The rates are 10 per cent for 17 named economies including Canada, Mexico, India, Indonesia and the United Kingdom, 10 per cent net of most favoured nation duty for the European Union and Taiwan, 12.5 per cent net of MFN duty for Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, and 12.5 per cent for the remaining 34. The effective moment is 12.01am eastern time on 24 July 2026, the same instant the surcharge lapsed.

The section 232 national security track, which the court left intact, has kept widening. Euronews reported that on 14 August 2026 the President signed an order taxing drones weighing more than 25 kilograms at takeoff or carrying thermal imaging, along with docking stations and critical components, at 100 per cent, with 25 per cent on smaller models and other parts, 15 per cent for manufacturers in the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Taiwan, and 10 per cent for the United Kingdom, subject to a demanding test on where the hardware, software and technology originate. The duties take effect 21 days after signing for the most sensitive equipment and 180 days for less sensitive components.

Several things remain unknown. Al Jazeera reported that 25 states, among them New York and California, filed a legal challenge on the Monday of that week against the tariffs announced the previous month, arguing they were an attempt to reinstate the invalidated duties; the venue of that action is not established in the documents examined here. Whether the section 301 forced labour duties or the section 232 drone tariffs face the same fate as the IEEPA measures has not been tested. And CBP has not published a completion date for the refund programme, nor an account of what happens to the difference between the $166 billion collected and the $128.68 billion earmarked.