After months of waiting, U.S. importers will finally have access to the $166 billion collected from tariffs that were ruled unconstitutional. But as American small businesses battered by the import taxes look to recoup the cost of the levies, they may find it’s more difficult for them than it is for larger, wealthier firms.

On Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rolled out the first phase of its electronic tariff refund system, also known as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, allowing importers to apply for refunds on tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court.

The justices ruled in February that the duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegal, but gave no recommendations on how to provide refunds for companies that paid for the brunt of the import taxes, leaving the process to the Court of International Trade and CBP.

Of more than 330,000 U.S. importers, about 56,497 have applied for refunds, according to recent filings from CBP. Claims from those importers total about $127 billion. CBP said refunds are to be distributed 60 to 90 days after they are processed.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/04/20/cape-tariff-refund-portal-small-business-challenges/

UPS just attempted to deliver a $50 item I bought from an artist in another country. The driver told me to make out a check for $36.50 to UPS for him to release it.

I refused it and contacted the seller. They told me that UPS wants $24.50 for them to pay the fee.

Are these tariffs and fees just arbitrary? The artist said that return shipment fees would be higher than the $24.50, so they agreed to pay it. The driver assured me they would reattempt delivery 3 times.

I don’t usually purchase internationally, I am located in the US, paid a VAT (which I know is separate from a tariff). I’m curious how I go about paying the import tariff on the purchase? It’s about $350 in value. I was hoping to get ahead of this so I don’t run into any issues.

The Lead:

Last week was defined by a massive administrative rebalancing in the United States and a deepening war in global economic policy. The launch of the CAPE refund system represents a historic victory for US importers against executive overreach, yet this liquidity injection was immediately offset by the threat of a new 50% tariff on China over its alleged ties to Iran. This geopolitical tension was reflected in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, which characterized the global economy as living in the shadow of war, with trade fragmentation and rising defense spending threatening to erase recent productivity gains. While the US focuses on reciprocity through its Section 122 surcharge, the EU and China are aggressively building alternative corridors, the former through tech deals with South Korea and the latter through tariff-free access for Africa, effectively creating a world of competing trade fortresses.

This Week’s Ocean, Air & Freight Markets

China-US Ocean Freight Market:

CEA to USWC: general market rates are holding at approximately $2,600 – $2,700 per FEU. However, special discounted rates are available for high-volume shippers, ranging between $2,100 and $2,200. Rates have remained largely stagnant compared to the previous week, though they represent a significant increase of $300 – $400 since the beginning of the month.

CEA to USEC: Rates are not explicitly quoted in dollar amounts, the lane is facing more severe operational challenges than the West Coast. Carriers are struggling to maintain the current $2,700 sticker price during this off-peak period, suggesting potential downward pressure on rates in the coming weeks despite aggressive capacity management.

Freight Right’s Lowest Rate indicators are finding that importers can find spot rates as low as $2,070 from China to US West Coast and $3,150 from China to US East Coast. Talk to your freight forwarder about options available to you.

https://preview.redd.it/v3cvvmn18lwg1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=07cb5dd43cdbfa54bfc05044e3ea2e761aca8d4b

https://preview.redd.it/j7zigbd28lwg1.png?width=1002&format=png&auto=webp&s=589fcb1e7e58af0e308f0cabaa22d06886fc4ca5

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Read more about the state of the ocean freight spot market with Freight Right’s TrueFreight Index.

What Happened This Past Week

• Increased Booking Rolls: There is a notable rise in "rolled" bookings, where cargo is pushed to later vessels due to the reduced number of active sailings.
• Volatile Sailing Schedules: Schedules have become highly unreliable; in one instance, a scheduled sailing for the final week of April disappeared from carrier websites entirely, with the next available slot pushed to early May.
• Shipper "Wait-and-See" Tactics: Many importers are withholding regular shipments, betting that current rate levels are unsustainable and will drop by May.
• Downsized Urgent Cargo: For necessary shipments, customers are opting for smaller, more frequent batches to mitigate the high costs of both ocean and air freight.

Looking Ahead:

The outlook for the first half of May suggests a period of continued friction between carrier capacity management and low market demand. Carriers are expected to continue their strategy of limited capacity to defend the current rate floor, but this will likely be challenged by the ongoing off-peak slump.

As sailings are pushed into the first week of May, shippers should prepare for rate adjustments at the start of the new month. If volume does not pick up significantly, the gap between special discounted rates and official sticker prices may widen, eventually forcing a correction in general market rates. Shippers currently withholding cargo are likely to re-enter the market in early May, which could provide the volume necessary to stabilize these higher levels or, conversely, lead to further booking congestion if blank sailings persist.

In the News:

Bloomberg: Global Trade Policy Reacts Swiftly to Iran War Disruptions
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-04-16/trade-policies-introduced-to-counter-iran-war-fallout 

New York Times: Trump Administration Takes Steps to Refund $166 Billion in Tariffs
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/us/politics/trump-administration-tariff-refunds.html 

Financial Times: Are global trade imbalances just ‘one really big surplus’?
https://www.ft.com/content/30e59f44-647e-496d-a4fa-ac3595dcb6f2 

Newsweek: Iran Issues New Threat to Further Destabilize Global Trade via Red Sea
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-new-threat-destabilize-global-trade-red-sea-11833027 

CNN: The tariff refund process is finally kicking off
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/20/economy/tariff-refund-process-kicks-off 

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A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump imposed without the constitutional authority to do so is scheduled to launch Monday.

Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system.

It’s the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.

Companies must submit declarations listing the goods on which they collectively put billions of dollars toward the import taxes the court subsequently struck down. If CBP approves a claim, it will take 60-90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said.

The government expects to process refunds in phases, however, focusing first on more recent tariff payments. Any number of technical factors and procedural issues could delay an importer’s application, so any reimbursements businesses plan to make to customers likely would trickled down slowly.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/04/19/businesses-trump-tariffs-refunds-cpd-portal-importers-brokers/

Like there’s auto parts tariff, steel tariff, china tariff etc. The instrument cluster has steel for the bolts and locking mechanism to the dash, it’s an electronic product and it’s from China … so am I basically getting tariffed on all this or do I get a steel dedicate exemption?

I’m just curious because there’s so many different tariffs and so many things to navigate, so do customs brokers just spend time researching the product? Curious how the process works.

Would it help if I ask the seller to put the part number too? Also see tariffs on the product $ or shipping too? I read that someone got charged tariff on the total invoice including shipping

When the Trump administration began its tariff campaign in 2025, some of the loudest critics focused on the consequences for Midwestern farmers or for border states. A year in, the impact of tariffs has become clearer, and some research suggests no state has emerged completely unscathed.

Early last year, the Trump administration established one of the most sweeping tariff regimes in the country’s history, including a 10% duty across the board and country and commodity-specific penalties, in some cases as high as 50%. These tariffs were widely expected to have a biting effect on the economy. But while some observers assumed the immediate pain would be confined to agricultural producers or states heavily reliant on international supply chains, the shock proved far more widespread.

Trump’s tariffs effectively revealed 50 different trade vulnerabilities across the country, each dictated by a state’s own production and consumption patterns, according to a paper published last week by researchers at Ohio State University and Cornell University. By the end of 2025, even states that had never depended on buying goods from abroad were feeling tariff tremors in their own way.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/04/14/how-tariffs-dealt-economic-blow-in-all-50-states/

I have at least one invoice, that specifically breaks out the tariffs. It was shipped from a large FTZ located in Texas (effectively a withdrawal). Who was the IOR, the firm that originally imported into the FTZ, or the buyer involved in the withdrawal ?