The US Supreme Court invalidated the so-called reciprocal tariffs which the White House had used in 2025 (IEEPA). Following this decision, on February 20th, the White House ordered that the respective governmental agencies stop collecting these tariffs.

Following this decision the White House proclaimed new temporary 15% tariff under section 122 taking effect on February 24th 2026 for a period of 150 days. This new tariff is applicable to all countries but is not applicable to goods facing section 232 actions and USMCA goods from Canada and Mexico. The period of 150 days is designed to allow the administration to put in place new tariffs which can imposed for a longer period of time and will be more targeted.

Consequences for our industry are the following:

• Countries that faced tariffs higher than 15% such as Brazil (50%) and most Asian countries now see their tariffs suddenly reduced dramatically for a period of 150 days
• These new tariffs are not applicable to the softwood lumber, furniture & cabinets which are affected by section 232 tariffs. These products remain at 10% (softwood lumber) and 25% (wooden furniture, kitchen furniture and cabinets) with a cap at 15% for wooden furniture / cabinets from the EU and 10% from the UK.

It is widely expected that the White House will use other tools at its disposal to bring back the tariffs to the level at which they were negotiated with the respective countries. The reduction in tariffs for some countries is to be considered as temporary.

The main benefit of this decision is that because any action of the White House on tariffs will now take a lot more time and due process, changes will be more gradual thus reducing uncertainty in trade.

(Source: Fordaq)