Estimators who built a 10% import surcharge into their numbers didn’t get relief on July 24. They got a different 10%.
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 caps balance-of-payments surcharges at 15% ad valorem for a maximum of 150 days. The clock ran out, and absent an act of Congress the 10% global surcharge expired by operation of law. The U.S. Trade Representative announced replacement duties on July 23, effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern on July 24.
What the Section 301 forced-labor tariffs cover
The new duties rest on Section 301 determinations that roughly 60 trading partners failed to effectively enforce prohibitions on importing goods made with forced labor. There are two tiers: 10% for economies found to have at least partial forced-labor import protections, 12.5% for the rest. The earlier proposal named 46 countries; the final list grew to about 60.
Product-level exemptions run several hundred pages in the Federal Register notice, and the Annex A exemption list largely mirrors the Section 122 exemptions it replaces. That mirroring is the practical detail: for a lot of imported building product, the landed cost barely moved.
Why the legal basis change still matters
Section 122 was time-limited by statute, which meant a contractor could reasonably model it as temporary. Section 301 has no equivalent 150-day cliff. Duties imposed under it have historically stayed in place for years and shift through periodic review rather than expiration.
So the rate looks similar and the planning horizon doesn’t. Anyone who priced escalation on the assumption that the surcharge sunset in July needs to revisit that assumption.
The metals tariffs are separate
Section 232 duties remain untouched: 50% on steel, aluminum and copper articles and 25% on derivative products, assessed on full customs value under an April 2, 2026 proclamation effective April 6. Those are the ones driving domestic sheet prices to multi-year highs.
Separately, a 50% tariff on key Canadian imports takes effect August 19, which hits cement, gypsum and dimensional lumber supply chains in the northern border states hardest.
Three overlapping tariff regimes, three different legal authorities, three different review cycles. Procurement teams are now doing trade law whether they signed up for it or not.