Global Trade

Temporary tariffs sound manageable. They come with timelines, limits, and the comforting suggestion that, at some point, they will go away and things will return to normal. In practice, that is not how tariffs behave. With very few exceptions, tariffs are not temporary. The structure changes. The legal authority shifts. The justification evolves. But the

When the Supreme Court shut down the use of IEEPA as a tariff tool, it did not remove tariffs from the policy landscape. It removed one of the more convenient ways to impose them quickly and broadly. The response was immediate. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 stepped in. If that felt fast,

In Which I Accuse Myself of Hypocrisy and Then Argue My Way Out  I’ve spent a good chunk of my professional life explaining to importers why tariffs are a bad idea. They’re inflationary. They’re regressive (meaning they hit people with less money harder than people with more money). And in the current environment, they’re being

Trade policy has always been political. What has changed is the speed. A new executive order. A tariff announcement. A sanctions update. A court decision. A sudden enforcement priority shift. Importers can wake up on Tuesday operating under assumptions that were perfectly reasonable on Monday. The risk is not the rule change itself, but rather

In this part two of our three-part article on Section 338, we explore the “imported in a vessel of…” clause. Now that the SCOTUS has struck down the IEEPA tariffs, what can we expect as a reaction from the Administration?  Two words: section 338 (OK, one word and one number.  Sue me.) Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 contains

Informal Entries, Section 321, and Why “Refunds Later” Is a Procedural Assumption U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently announced that it has collected more than $1 billion in duties following the suspension of duty-free de minimis treatment under Section 321. The announcement highlights the scale and speed with which duties are now being collected on

Informal Entries, Section 321, and a Procedural Gap in the Case Law Recent litigation over tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) has focused on a recurring procedural question: if the tariffs are ultimately held unlawful, can importers recover the duties they paid?  In addressing that question, courts have declined to halt

Part One of a Three-Part Series on Section 338 The Real Tariff Tools in a Post-IEEPA World The Supreme Court may soon decide whether presidents can continue using IEEPA as an all-purpose tariff machine. If the Court rules against that practice, it will limit a tool that has become a convenient shortcut.  The executive branch