Reciprocal Tariffs Explained: IEEPA Duties, End Date, Refunds

Key Points

• The reciprocal tariffs were duties imposed under IEEPA by Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025, with a 10 percent baseline under heading 9903.01.25 starting April 5, 2025.
• Country-specific rates above the baseline were carried under the other 9903.01 and 9903.02 headings.
• On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court held that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, and an Executive Order the same day ended the IEEPA tariff actions.
• For entries on or after February 24, 2026, every IEEPA heading went inactive.
• Duties deposited under the IEEPA headings are refundable through CBP's CAPE process.

On this page

1. What the reciprocal tariffs were
2. How the headings were structured
3. How and when the reciprocal tariffs ended
4. How the duty comes back
5. What importers should do
6. Key references

The links in this article go to the primary documents: the proclamations, Federal Register notices, and official tariff schedule pages themselves. Read the source.

The reciprocal tariffs were additional import duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025. They ended after the Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026 that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, and duties already paid under those headings are refundable through CBP's CAPE process.

What the reciprocal tariffs were

Executive Order 14257 was issued on April 2, 2025. It used emergency authority under IEEPA to add ad valorem duties on imports, layered on top of the normal column 1 duty rate in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS). You can find the order through the Federal Register and the White House site by searching for its number.

Three features set these duties apart from other tariff programs:

• Legal basis: IEEPA, an emergency statute, rather than Section 232 (national security investigations) or Section 301 (unfair trade practices findings).
• Reporting method: importers declared the duty with Chapter 99 headings on the entry, in addition to the regular HTS classification.
• Stacking: the duty was additional to the ordinary rate, and its interaction with other programs depended on the specific heading and its notes.

How the headings were structured

The 10 percent baseline: 9903.01.25

The baseline was a 10 percent duty reported under heading 9903.01.25, effective from April 5, 2025. It was the floor for covered goods. The heading text and its notes are in Chapter 99 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, and the per-heading detail for 9903.01.25 is carried on the CustomsGenius heading pages.

Country-specific headings

Rates above the baseline were carried under the other headings in the 9903.01 and 9903.02 ranges. Each heading tied a rate to a country or group of countries, and some headings handled exemptions or special treatment rather than a rate. Because this article is a history of the program, it does not list individual country rates. Use the heading pages for the text of any specific heading.

Replacement and exemption headings

Over the life of the program, additional 9903.02 headings were used for replacement rates and exemptions. Examples that now carry an ended status include 9903.02.78, the IEEPA replacement rates exemption heading, and 9903.02.80, the South Korea IEEPA replacement rate.

How and when the reciprocal tariffs ended

The end came in two connected steps.

1. February 20, 2026, the court decision: the Supreme Court decided that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs. That removed the statutory basis for the reciprocal duties and for the other IEEPA tariff actions. The opinion is available from the Supreme Court.
2. February 20, 2026, the executive order: an Executive Order issued the same day ended the IEEPA tariff actions. It is published on whitehouse.gov and in the Federal Register.

The termination applied to entries on or after February 24, 2026. From that point, every IEEPA heading, including 9903.01.25 and the country-specific headings, went inactive. Entries made on or after that date should not report an IEEPA heading.

Ending the tariffs did not erase the duty already collected. That is why the refund question matters.

How the duty comes back

Duties deposited under the IEEPA headings are refundable through CBP's CAPE process. In practical terms, that means the money paid on past entries that reported those headings is recoverable, rather than only being stopped going forward.

What to expect from the process

• The refund runs through a CBP process, not through a new tariff heading. You are recovering deposits made on entries that already exist.
• Refunds follow the entries. Your records of which entries reported an IEEPA heading, and how much was deposited on each, drive the claim.
• Errors and rejections are a normal part of working through a new filing process. The CAPE errors reference explains the common ones.

For the step-by-step recovery workflow, read the IEEPA tariff refund guide. If an entry needs a separate challenge outside CAPE, the ACE protest module guide covers how protests are filed and tracked.

What this does not cover

Section 232 and Section 301 duties were separate programs under different authority. The Supreme Court's decision concerned IEEPA, so this article does not treat those programs as part of the refund.

What importers should do

• Pull every entry that reported 9903.01.25 or any other 9903.01 or 9903.02 heading, and total the deposits by entry.
• Confirm that no entry on or after February 24, 2026 reports an IEEPA heading, and correct your broker templates and classification tables if one does.
• Reconcile the entry list against your own records before submitting it to CBP through CAPE, and keep the CAPE errors reference at hand for rejections.
• Follow the IEEPA tariff refund guide to track each claim through to the refund.

Key references

• Federal Register: publication home for Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025 and the Executive Order of February 20, 2026 ending the IEEPA tariff actions.
• White House: official source for presidential executive orders, including both orders named above.
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule: Chapter 99 text for heading 9903.01.25 and the other 9903.01 and 9903.02 headings.
• Supreme Court of the United States: the February 20, 2026 decision holding that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection: agency source for CAPE and for guidance on the termination for entries on or after February 24, 2026.
• IEEPA tariff refund guide: how to recover IEEPA duties through CAPE.
• CAPE errors: common CAPE rejections and how to read them.