At 12:01 a.m. Eastern on July 24, the 10% surcharge on nearly everything America imports quietly died. Nobody repealed it. Nobody voted. The clock simply ran out — Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, the obscure authority behind the tariff, caps any surcharge at 150 days unless Congress extends it, and Congress never did. Per an analysis from policy-intelligence firm Statt, no extension was even on the table; the bills actually filed would have repealed the authority or exempted small businesses from it.
The tariff that touched everything
The surcharge landed on February 24 under Proclamation 11012 and applied to almost all imported goods. There were carve-outs — pharmaceuticals, certain electronics, vehicles and parts, aerospace, energy, critical minerals, some agricultural products, plus anything already paying Section 232 tariffs (the two never stacked). Duty-free USMCA goods from Canada and Mexico were spared too.
What matters now is the entry date. Goods that cleared customs before the deadline still owe the 10%. Goods entering after July 24 don't — unless something new replaces it. That "unless" is doing a lot of work.
It survived the courts, just not the calendar
Here's the strange part: the surcharge was actually ruled unlawful back on May 7, when the Court of International Trade decided 2-1 that the proclamation didn't have a valid legal basis. But the court only granted relief to the two importers and one state that brought the case. The government appealed within a day, the Federal Circuit froze the ruling on May 12, and customs kept collecting from everyone right through this week. Importers who paid all spring are now watching that appeal closely, because a loss for the government could mean refunds — with interest.
Why your cart won't get 10% cheaper
So does the death of a 10% import tax mean cheaper stuff? Probably not, and definitely not right away. Three reasons.
The replacements are already lined up. USTR is running Section 301 investigations into structural overcapacity involving China, the EU, and more than a dozen other economies, plus forced-labor cases covering 60 countries with duties proposed at 10% or 12.5%, a Vietnam IP case, and a Brazil case with a proposed 25% tariff. Add Section 232 probes into robotics, industrial machinery, and medical equipment, and you can see why Statt told its clients to treat July 24 as a "controlled-risk transition," not a tariff holiday.
The small-package crackdown isn't going anywhere. The rules that ended de minimis treatment — the old exemption that let low-value parcels from overseas marketplaces enter duty-free — came from separate CBP rules finalized June 24, for postal and non-postal shipments alike. Those don't expire with Section 122. Cheap direct-from-factory shipping stays dead.
And retailers spent five months eating this tax. Thomson Reuters' 2026 Global Trade Report found 72% of trade professionals calling U.S. tariff volatility the most disruptive regulatory force they deal with, and 39% of companies absorbing tariff costs instead of raising prices — triple last year's share. IPC's survey of electronics manufacturers found most expected consumers to pay over two-thirds of tariff costs eventually, and about half had started breaking tariffs out as a separate line on invoices. Companies that sacrificed margin for months usually rebuild it before they pass savings along.
Watch these two things
The Federal Circuit's decision could unlock refund claims on five months of collections — real money for importers, and eventually for pricing. And USTR's final calls on the Section 301 cases could put new duties on specific countries and products within weeks.
The flat 10% era is over. What replaces it — relief, or just a lumpier, more targeted tariff bill — is the next few weeks' story.
Image: Wolfgang Weiser, via Pexels
