Latest news on trade tariffs
Read the latest news stories as they are published.
General Motors pencils in $500mn tariff refund
General Motors pencils in $500mn tariff refund
Pittsburgh, 28 April (Argus) — US automaker General Motors (GM) expects to receive a $500mn refund for a tranche of tariffs annulled by the US Supreme Court this year. The refund will lower GM's 2026 tariff bill from $3bn-4bn to $2.5bn-3.5bn, the Detroit-based automaker said in its first-quarter earnings call on 28 April. While some of the tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump's International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) have been struck down, automobile and metals tariffs remain in place and account for GM's considerable expected tariff bill. The US-Israel conflict with Iran is also a major factor affecting costs, GM chief executive Mary Barra said during Tuesday's earnings call. Prices for energy, metals and freight have gone up because of the war, adding about $500mn in expected costs for GM this year, Barra said. However, rising gas prices as a result of the war have not yet had an impact on demand for full-size pickup trucks and other internal combustion engine vehicles, GM said. But the longer the war goes on, the more likely demand wanes for large gas-powered trucks, the company said. GM's total vehicle sales in the first quarter fell to 1.3mn units, down by 11pc compared with the first three months of 2025. US sales fell by 10pc to 626,000 vehicles in the quarter compared with a year earlier. GM attributed part of the US sales decline to maintenance downtime at one of its full-size pickup plants, as well as to lower imports into the US of GM vehicles assembled in South Korea. GM reported a $2.6bn profit in the first quarter, down from $2.8bn in the first quarter of 2025. By James Marshall Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US says it can not pay tariff refunds quickly
US says it can not pay tariff refunds quickly
Washington, 6 March (Argus) — President Donald Trump's administration said it is unable to comply with a recent court order to begin refunding $166bn in tariffs the US Supreme Court has struck down, and that setting up systems to handle mass refund requests will probably take 45 days. The administration is making "all possible efforts" to install automated systems that can issue refunds to more than 330,000 importers that made 53mn customs entries under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a top customs official said. But making immediate changes is not possible because doing so could clash with other deadlines and divert staff away from "imminent threats" to national security and the economy, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said. "CBP has never been ordered to, nor has it attempted to, process a volume of refunds anywhere near the volume of total entries and Entry Summary lines on which IEEPA duties have been deposited," CBP trade programs executive director Brandon Lord wrote in a declaration filed in federal court on Friday. The administration's stated difficulty in paying the ordered refunds could offer legal ammunition to states that have filed a lawsuit to block new 10pc tariffs that Trump imposed last month. The administration successfully avoided a court-ordered freeze on its IEEPA tariffs last year by pledging to pay refunds if they were struck down. But the expectation of weeks of delay in paying out refunds could test the patience of federal judges hearing the latest tariff lawsuit. The US Court of International Trade on 4 March ordered CBP to strip out IEEPA tariffs owed on "any and all" imported goods, with a focus on taking out the tariffs during "liquidation" — the calculation of final duties — on all customs entries. The Trump administration earlier this week already conceded it will pay interest on refunds it is require to make, which economists expect will result in billions of dollars of additional payments paid back to importers. Lord, in his declaration, said CBP is "not able" to comply with court order earlier this because its systems were already set up to automatically liquidate more than 300,000 custom entries every week. Halting liquidation and offering refunds would require CBP staff to spend 4mn hours to manually input refunds, he said, whereas the automated system still being developed would "streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments" for the affected 330,000 importers. Under the planned automated system, refunds would not occur automatically. Lord said importers would have to file a "declaration" with a list of entries on which IEEPA duties were paid, after which CBP would validate the declaration "as soon as practicable". The system would then finalize the entries and pay out refunds electronically. But Lord identified a potential obstacle, which is that just 21,000 of the 330,000 importers paying IEEPA tariffs have taken steps to receive refunds electronically. Federal judge Richard Eaton, who is hearing all tariff refund cases in the US Court of International Trade, has yet to respond to CBP's declaration. The court could order additional requirements to handle the tariff refunds. By Chris Knight Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US court orders refunds on Trump's IEEPA tariffs
US court orders refunds on Trump's IEEPA tariffs
Washington, 4 March (Argus) — A federal court has ordered President Donald Trump's administration to begin processing refunds on tens of billions of dollars in emergency tariffs the US Supreme Court said last month were unlawful. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must recalculate final duties owed on "any and all" imported goods without including the tariffs that Trump imposed under law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Richard Eaton, a judge on the US Court of International Trade, wrote in a three-page decision on Wednesday. Eaton, who said he is the only judge on the court hearing IEEPA tariff refund cases, said the Supreme Court's decision that struck down Trump's emergency tariffs should provide across-the-board relief, even to those that had not filed lawsuits. Thousands of companies have already filed lawsuits seeking refunds of the IEEPA tariffs, which collected an estimated $175bn from importers during the nearly one-year period when Trump had them in effect. "All importers of record whose entries were subject to IEEPA duties are entitled to the benefit of the Learning Resources decision," Eaton wrote, referencing the name of the Supreme Court's tariff ruling. The court's order does not explicitly lay out the refund process, but instead applies to customs entries that are "unliquidated" — those that are pending — and those that are liquidated but not yet final. The order, issued as part of a tariff refund lawsuit an air filtration product company filed less than a week ago, suggests that courts intend to move quickly on refunds after the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling finding Trump had no authority to impose his emergency tariffs. Earlier this week, a federal appeals court denied a request by the Trump administration for a months-long delay in court proceedings over tariff refunds, allowing tariff lawsuits to resume in the Court of International Trade. Trump previously said the refund process might take "years" to resolve in court. The Trump administration told Eaton this week it was still considering "next steps" for the Supreme Court opinion, including the mechanics and "scope" of refunds. As of Wednesday, CBP said it had not paid refunds on any of the IEEPA tariffs. In a court filing earlier on Wednesday, the administration conceded that it would have to also pay interest on any tariff refunds it is required to make. The cumulative interest payments on the refunded tariffs could reach $700mn each month, according to calculations the think tank Cato Institute published this week. US senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), in a letter on Wednesday to administration officials, said that the Trump administration's "dithering" on tariff refunds had created an opening for those on Wall Street to offer small companies with immediate cash needs "pennies on the dollars" to purchase their tariff refund rights. Further delaying tariff refunds would result in "more pain" for US companies and their customers, he wrote. By Chris Knight Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
New US tariff keeps aromatics arbs shut: Correction
New US tariff keeps aromatics arbs shut: Correction
Corrects reason for BTX tariff exemption in paragraph 6 Houston, 2 March (Argus) — The new 10pc tariff on US imports that replaced earlier tariffs ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court keep aromatics arbitrage opportunities in the US closed on paper. The new 10pc tariffs will keep arbitrages closed for benzene, toluene and mixed xylenes (BTX) for chemical use. As of 24 February, US benzene (BZ) stood at a $145/t premium to South Korea BZ, according to Argus data, but with the 10pc tariff rate and freight costs at $72/t, the arbitrage remained closed on paper. Similarly, toluene closed at a $145/t premium and mixed xylenes closed at a $129/t premium to toluene and mixed xylenes in South Korea, but the 10pc tariff and freight costs kept those arbitrages shut. President Donald Trump has threatened to raise the 10pc tariffs — enacted under a different law that allows them to only be in place for 150 days before requiring Congressional approval — to 15pc . The new tariffs continue to provide the same explicit exemptions for shipments of BTX products imported under specific Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTSUS) codes as referenced in Annex II of the Executive Order 14257 establishing Reciprocal Tariffs, dated 2 April 2025. In 2025, the US imported 529,000 metric tonnes (t) of benzene, 488,193t of mixed xylenes and 183,379t of toluene, according to US Census Bureau data compiled by Global Trade Tracker. By Jake Caldwell Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
