Court Rules the 10% General Tariff is Illegal; Expect an Appeal

May 11, 2026 by 1 Comment

Less than three months have gone by since the new section 122 tariffs were announced and the Court of International Trade has already held that these tariffs were illegal.

These tariffs were less of a burden to aviation because of the large number of exceptions that included most aircraft parts; however the Sectrion 122 tariffs excluded aviation through a list of tariff codes, and some aircraft parts tariff codes were left off of the list (like certain aircraft heat exchangers, for example).

Do I Get a Refund?

Not yet.

The Court of International Trade issued an injunction in favor of the plaintiff but not in favor of anyone else. This means that the ruling does not have nationwide effect (remember, the Supreme Court decided that nationwide injunctions were beyond the power of the federal courts). This means that generally when the United States is found to be violating the law by a federal trial court, the United States can only be prevented from further violations with respect to the named plaintiffs.

What this means in our case is that the 10% tariff remains in effect until the Court of International Trade orders a different remedy, the government decides to provide a remedy, or the appellate courts (including the Supreme Court) order a broader remedy.

While the industry waits for this to get resolved, it makes sense to retain records of the tariffs you pay for your imports, as well as the amount of duty you pay under each tariff. Effective records can make it easier for you to identify what tariffs are may have been invalidated and whether you are permitted to apply for a refund of the duties paid under the invalidated tariffs.

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90 Day Tariff Pause – What Does It REALLY Mean?

April 10, 2025 by Leave a comment

Yesterday, the President announced 90-day pause on tariffs. But there are still tariffs that we will have to pay. The original announcement on social media has been fleshed out with more formal language in the form of an executive order.

Products of Anywhere BUT Canada, China or Mexico

The announced 10% baseline tariff will still apply to all imports. The executive order is merely deferring for 90 days the higher, temporary country-based, rates that exceed 10%. These higher rates were originally published in Annex I of the earlier executive order.

So this means for most aircraft parts produced in most of the world, the import tariff will be 10% plus whatever the baseline tariff was (the baseline, or “applicable” tariff will often be zero under the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft and General Note 6 of the HTSUS).

The 90-day pause applies through midnight on July 8, 2025. The higher tariffs from Annex I will apply staring July 9, unless other intervening rules are published.

China

China is a different story. The tariff on goods of China will be increased to 125% for goods entered on or after April 10 (today) under sub-heading 9903.01.63. This will be in addition to a 20% tariff under sub-heading 9903.01.24 and the 25% tariff (under sub-heading 9903.88.01) that was applied to certain aircraft parts and other headings in 2018. This will apply to goods produced in China. If you send non-Chinese goods to China for MRO work, then the value added (typically, the invoice price for the MRO work) will be subject to an import duty. The maintenance work is considered to be a value-added product of China in this case.

Canada and Mexico

Products of Canada and Mexico continue to be subject to the 25% tariffs that were previously applied. The 90-day pause does not appear to apply to them. For many aircraft parts, you can use the USMCA provisions to avoid tariffs; be sure to carefully follow the country-of-origin rules.

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