US appeals court temporarily restores Section 122 of the Trade Act global tariffs
Importers must continue paying 10% tariffs during ongoing legal battle
Plaintiffs argue Donald Trump exceeded executive authority on trade measures
A US federal appeals court has halted a lower court decision ruling against the Trump administration's 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act. The ruling means, for now, importers will continue to pay the 10% tariffs after a week of reprieve.
On Tuesday, the federal appeals court issued a short-term administrative stay. The judges weigh the administration’s request to allow officials to keep collecting the levies while the legal fight continues.
1 May 2026
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Notably, the small businesses and Democratic state officials who sued the Trump administration over the tariffs are due to respond in a week.
Sara Albrecht, chief executive officer of Liberty Justice Center, one of the groups involved the litigation, said in a statement, cited by Bloomberg, that the temporary pause from the Federal Circuit “creates more uncertainty for American small businesses and our plaintiffs that have already spent the last year absorbing unlawful tariff costs and fighting to recover their own money.”
Previous Ruling
Earlier this month, a US federal court struck down the 10% global tariffs slapped by Trump, terming them "invalid" and "unauthorised by law". “The President’s Proclamation fails to assert that those required conditions have been satisfied,” the lower-court ruling asserts.
The US trade court ruled against the new tariffs on Friday, but did not widely block their collection. Trump imposed 10% tariffs on all of its trading partners, including India, on February 24 for 150 days. This followed an earlier US Supreme Court verdict that struck down his earlier sweeping levies. Section 122, allows the President to impose import tariffs of up to 15% for a maximum of 150 days without congressional approval to deal with serious balance-of-payments difficulties.
The 10% global tariff is scheduled to expire in July, unless extended by Congress. Tuesday’s appeals court decision paused that ruling temporarily to allow the White House time to respond. But the plaintiffs, consisting 24 states, called Trump’s tariff campaign an abuse of executive power. They have also pointed to the downstream effects, as consumers shoulder the costs of the added taxes.
