Every week we hear from importers who assume the February 2026 Supreme Court ruling wiped out every tariff the US has imposed in the last few years. It did not. The ruling was specific: it invalidated the use of IEEPA as a source of tariff authority. It said nothing about Section 301, Section 232, Section 201, or any of the other trade-remedy statutes that produce duties at the US border. Those remain in full force.
If you run a business that imports anything subject to US duties, you need to know which of your duties are refundable under the current wave and which are not. Filing a protest on a non-refundable duty is a waste of time and money. This post walks through the four main tariff programs, explains where they come from, and tells you clearly which are in scope.
Tariffs come from different statutes
A US import tariff does not just appear. Every tariff — without exception — traces back to a specific Act of Congress that gave the executive branch the authority to impose it. The four statutes most relevant to the current tariff landscape are:
- IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 1977) — the statute that was used to impose reciprocal tariffs in 2025 and the China/Hong Kong add-ons. Struck down as a tariff authority by the Supreme Court in February 2026.
- Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 — the statute used to impose the China List 1 through List 4 tariffs from 2018 onward. Still in force.
- Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — the national-security statute used to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium. Still in force.
- Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 — a safeguard statute used for surges of imports causing serious injury to a domestic industry. Still in force.
The Supreme Court ruling affected exactly one of these: IEEPA. The others are constitutionally grounded in different delegations of authority and were not before the Court.
IEEPA tariffs — refundable
There are two tariff layers that were imposed under IEEPA authority in 2025:
- The reciprocal tariff layer — a broad 10% baseline applied to imports from most countries, with substantially higher rates on certain trading partners
- The China and Hong Kong add-on layer — additional duties stacked on top of pre-existing Section 301 tariffs, so that combined rates on many product categories exceeded 50%
Both layers fall inside the ruling. Importers who paid either of these — and whose entries are still inside the 180-day protest window under 19 U.S.C. § 1514(c)(3) — are eligible to file a protest to recover them.
This is the pool of duties covered by the US Court of International Trade’s March 4, 2026 refund order: approximately $166 billion across 53 million entries and 330,000 importers. We cover the CIT order itself in this breakdown.
Section 301 tariffs — not refundable under the IEEPA ruling
Section 301 is the statute behind the original “China tariffs” rolled out in 2018 and expanded through 2019. It authorises the US Trade Representative to impose duties in response to unfair foreign trade practices, and it was used to apply duty rates ranging from 7.5% to 25% across four product lists covering hundreds of billions of dollars in annual Chinese imports.
Section 301 duties are still being collected. The Supreme Court ruling did not touch them. An importer who paid a 25% Section 301 duty on a Chinese-origin entry in 2025 has not been handed a refund by the IEEPA ruling, because that 25% came from a different legal authority.
That said, Section 301 has its own refund paths:
- Standard protests challenging classification, country of origin, or exclusion eligibility
- Product exclusion claims, where USTR has approved an exclusion for a specific HTSUS subheading or product
- Ongoing litigation in the Court of International Trade — notably the HMTX Industries line of cases — that has raised questions about the procedural validity of List 3 and List 4 implementations
These paths are narrower than the IEEPA refund pool, require case-specific arguments, and are not the focus of Tariff Spot’s current product. We may add 301-specific support later; for now, an importer with a Section 301 recovery question should speak to a customs broker or a trade attorney familiar with the exclusion process.
Section 232 tariffs — not refundable under the IEEPA ruling
Section 232 covers the 25% steel and 25% aluminium tariffs (aluminium was raised from 10% to 25% in 2025). The statute authorises tariffs on national-security grounds and has been upheld by the Federal Circuit in several prior challenges. The February 2026 ruling does not touch it.
An importer paying Section 232 duties may be able to contest specific determinations through a protest — for example, an incorrect classification that pushes a product into the 232 scope, or a denied product-specific exclusion — but there is no broad refund wave for 232 duties. The duty layer is still legally valid.
Section 201 tariffs — not refundable under the IEEPA ruling
Section 201 is the safeguard statute. It has been used more narrowly than 301 or 232 — solar panels and washing machines in 2018, with some extensions — and it is generally less present in any given importer’s duty bill. It is also not affected by the IEEPA ruling.
What this means in practice
If you are an importer looking at a year of US duty bills and trying to figure out what is actually recoverable, here is the short answer:
- Reciprocal tariff line on your broker invoice? That is IEEPA. Refundable.
- Additional duty on China/HK imports in 2025? That is almost certainly the IEEPA add-on layer. Refundable.
- 7.5% or 25% List 3/4 duty on a Chinese good? That is Section 301. Not refundable under the IEEPA ruling.
- 25% on steel or aluminium? Section 232. Not refundable under the IEEPA ruling.
- Duty on solar cells or washing machines? Likely Section 201. Not refundable under the IEEPA ruling.
The practical consequence is that an importer’s recoverable universe may be smaller than the total duties they paid — but it is also usually a material number. On a typical Chinese-origin entry in 2025, the IEEPA-attributable portion of the duty might be 10% to 20% of entered value, even while the 301 layer (7.5% to 25%) remains unrecoverable.
How to tell what layer you paid
Your customs broker’s invoice, and the entry summary documentation they file on your behalf, itemise duty by statute. Section 301, 232, and IEEPA duties are recorded on separate HTSUS lines and show up as distinct line items in the duty calculation. A broker who cannot tell you the breakdown should be asked to produce the entry summary; the breakdown is on the form.
For the current refund wave, the only number that matters is the IEEPA layer. That is the number a Form 19 protest can recover, and that is the number Tariff Spot is set up to handle at volume.
Know the IEEPA-layer total on your 2025 imports? That is your refund pool. Start a refund claim and we will handle the protest preparation for a flat fee per entry.