Section 122 — emergency tariff
Section 122 is a temporary 10% emergency tariff on most US imports. It has a statutory expiry date and is under active legal challenge — here is what that means for a calculation today.
What Section 122 is
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 USC 2132) lets the President impose a temporary import surcharge of up to 15% to address a balance-of-payments emergency. Under Proclamation 11012 a 10% Section 122 tariff took effect on February 24, 2026. It applies to most goods from all countries, as an ad valorem charge on the full entered value.
What is exempt
Section 122 carries several exemptions: goods already covered by Section 232 and goods in transit when it took effect (Annex I); energy, critical minerals, certain agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, certain electronics, and aerospace goods (Annex II); USMCA-qualifying goods; CAFTA-DR duty-free textiles; donations; and goods entered under HTS Chapter 98 special provisions.
The statutory expiry
Section 122 has a built-in expiry: the surcharge is scheduled to end on July 24, 2026 unless Congress acts to extend it. The countdown shown on affected tariff pages reflects that statutory date. What replaces Section 122 after July 24 — an extension, a successor measure under another authority, or nothing — has not been announced.
The legal challenge
Section 122 is under active litigation. On May 7, 2026 the Court of International Trade struck it down in Oregon v. Trump and Burlap & Barrel v. Trump (consolidated). The injunction is narrow — it applies only to the named plaintiffs, and Customs and Border Protection continues to collect the tariff from everyone else. The government is expected to appeal to the Federal Circuit, and a final resolution before July 24 is considered unlikely.
Because of this, Portigo includes the Section 122 component in the calculation at 10% but flags it as under legal challenge. Duties paid under Section 122 may turn out to be refundable depending on the outcome of the appeal; no refund mechanism for Section 122 exists today.
This situation is changing. Portigo surfaces the status in its data as of the page's "rates as of" timestamp and does not give legal or compliance advice. Confirm specifics against official sources or a licensed customs broker.