Tariff Updates: Latest News on the Evolving Trade War

Update (Aug. 28, 2026)

After a failed negotiation process that spanned the course of months, President Trump issued 50% tariffs on a wide range of Canadian imports on Aug. 22 — including automotive and steel imports. The tariffs are set to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Notably, energy was once again excluded from this new batch of tariffs.

In response, the Canadian government has launched its own retaliatory 50% tariffs, set to take effect Sept. 8, 2026. 

Of particular interest to the propane industry are the new tariffs impacting U.S. steel, aluminum and machinery components that comprise a wide array of industry equipment, from propane sensors to cylinders. Canadian buyers looking to purchase various propane equipment now have a high incentive to purchase from local manufacturers where possible.

Since any given piece of propane equipment might use steel or aluminum sourced from both Canada and the U.S., the new round of Canadian and U.S. tariffs puts propane equipment manufacturers and producers into a complicated situation. The impact of continuing escalation in tariffs will continue to shape and impact not only propane equipment manufacturers, but the propane distributors that rely on that equipment. 

As the contentious trade war between the two countries continues, the risk of industries that have not yet been subject to tariffs — such as energy — becoming the next target also increases. As to date, neither country has indicated a willingness to implement tariffs on energy. 

Update (March 12, 2026)

Editor’s Note: A version of the following update was originally published in the National Propane Gas Association’s Bobtail. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) is not yet able to refund the reciprocal tariffs struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, the agency told the U.S. Court of International Trade on March 6. 

CBP cited the volume of tariffs, estimated at about $166 billion, and technical limitations as reasons for the delay. As of March 4, 2026, over 330,000 importers have made a total of over 53 million entries involving IEEPA tariffs. 

The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the CBP system that tracks imports and processes tariff payments, will have to be adjusted. The new process, which CBP plans to have in place within 45 days, will automate many steps that would otherwise be performed manually when issuing refunds. 

Under the proposed new system: 

• Importers will file a declaration in ACE listing the affected entries 
• The system will automatically validate and re-calculate the duty owed and process refunds (with interest) 
• Refunds will be aggregated (with interest) by importer CBP will certify the refunds and the Treasury Department will issue the refunds electronically 

For more information, consult CBP’s enrollment process here.

Update (Feb. 24, 2026)

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs. In a 6-3 decision, Supreme Court judges ruled that President Trump’s use of an emergency powers law to impose many of his global tariffs, including the massive umbrella of “reciprocal” tariffs, was unconstitutional. 

“In a part of the opinion joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Roberts said that Trump’s reliance on IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] to impose the tariffs violated the “major questions” doctrine — the idea that if Congress wants to delegate the power to make decisions of vast economic or political significance, it must do so clearly,” said legal expert Amy Howe. “In 2023, the court relied on the ‘major questions’ doctrine to strike down the Biden administration’s student-loan forgiveness program.”

In a press conference response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, President Trump announced a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act and a day later, the president raised that rate to 15%. According to official government documents released Feb. 24, however, the new rate appears to be 10%. Under the law, these tariffs would be constrained to a 150 day limit. However, it is expected that legal challenges will be brought to the table against the use of the Trade Act to implement global tariffs as well. 

“In particular, Section 122 allows limited, temporary ‘measures to restrict imports’ if needed ‘to deal with large and serious’ US balance-of-payments deficits — a situation in which a country’s total payments to other countries are more than its total earnings,” sad international trade expert Gary Clyde Hufbauer. “Plaintiffs challenging Trump’s new tariff will question whether a “balance-of-payments deficit,” as the term was understood in 1974, actually exists in 2026.”

Any legal challenges made to the president’s new tariffs will likely take a year or longer for a final ruling to occur.

In response to conservative Supreme Court judges ruling against his tariff policies, the president stated, “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, if you want to know the truth.”

Update (July 22, 2025)

President Trump’s network of implemented tariffs — and the larger network of threatened tariffs — has grown and become more complicated since BPN’s latest tariff update.

On May 28, the Court of International Trade declared two sets of President Trump’s tariffs to be invalid: the “fentanyl” tariffs in place against Canada, Mexico and China, and the reciprocal tariffs. The court’s decision was immediately challenged by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which issued an administrative stay of the court’s injunction. These two sets of tariffs remain in effect while the Federal Circuit reviews their legality.

The tariffs currently being considered in court include:

• “Fentanyl tariffs” imposed under the Internaitonal Emergency Economic Powers Act, including 20% against China, 10% global tariffs, and 25% against Canadian and Mexican goods.
• Reciporcal tariffs against a wide range of countries, as laid out in previous executive orders.

Not included in this are tariffs on steel and aluminum, which have doubled since June 4 to 50%. 

Many of President Trump’s proposed reciprocal tariffs have now been delayed to take effect August 1. After a few weeks of reining back on tariff rates, President Trump in recent days has proposed steep hikes. On July 13, President Trump announced new duties for the European Union, ranging from 4.4% to 50%.

Additionally, President Trump unveiled plans to implement 25% tariffs on some of the United States’ top trading partners, including Japan and South Korea. According to the Yale Lab, American consumers are currently facing an average tariff rate of 20.6%, the highest rate since 1910.

In President Trump’s previous term, implemented tariffs had the effect of raising the cost of producing propane tanks and led to increases in pricing for consumers, according to Alliance Truck and Tank. 

Update (May 2, 2025)

After a hopeful back-and-forth between President Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudaeu, the president resolved to maintain the trade agreement USMCA with both countries, a trade agreement first signed by President Trump in November 2018. 

Since April 9, both countries have faced 25% ad valorem tariffs on goods that are not compliant with USMCA. 

Additionally, many countries now face the threat of looming reciprocal tariffs, meaning tariffs that directly match the tariffs other countries have in effect on U.S. imports. Many of these tariffs have been delayed until July 9.

U.S.-China trade relations has been in the spotlight for the past month, with each country progressively escalating the trade war. On March 24, the U.S. administration threatened 25% tariffs on Chinese imports, a rate that was dwarfed April 10 at a total rate of 145%. However, the specific tariff rate depends largely on the product.

Regardless of the specific rate that any given product faces or will face in the future, the icy relations between the U.S. and China is leaving many industries in a state of uncertainty with questions about how to plan around price hikes and possible supply shortages.

According to John G. Murphy, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Tariffs on manufacturing inputs that are not domestically available are especially problematic for American manufacturers. When a product is not otherwise readily available except by import, the manufacturer has little recourse but to pay the tariff. This immediately increases the cost of making goods here in America.”

This seems to be reflected in the latest quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) report, where the GDP fell in value by 0.3%. Analysts credit the surge in imports for the decline.

For more resources on how to navigate tariffs in the propane industry, take a look at NPGA’s newly created Tariff Information Center. 

BPN will continue to provide updates on tariffs in the coming weeks.

(March 7, 2025)

On March 3, the Trump administration announced that previously delayed tariffs on U.S. trading partners Canada and Mexico would in fact take effect March 4. The update came after a month-long pause on the 25% tariffs that President Trump had previously threatened. After the White House received a call from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the Trump administration once again paused the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, allowing exemptions for products that are qualified under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade agreement introduced and signed by President Trump in his first term of office. The USMCA replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on July 1, 2020. 

The short-lived implementation of tariffs came after Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to providing additional border security, terms that Trump had asked to be met. Additionally, leaders in both countries claim the current administration’s actions violated the USMCA. 

On March 6, the Trump administration announced the most recent pause on the wide-sweeping tariffs, with no explicit expiration date being given at this time. Trump also added that he still intends to impose reciprocal tariffs starting April 2. 

The continually evolving trade war is leaving many in the propane industry with questions about how tariffs are impacting their own business. This confusion is reflected on a broad scale in the stock market, with the stock market S&P 500 dropping 2% since the most recent string of back-and-forth tariff announcements. 

On March 5, the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) hosted an informational webinar on the then-current status of tariffs. When speaking about the concept of reciprocal tariffs, legal expert Micah Myers said the following: 

“It’s a massive change in the way the U.S. does tariffs. Since World War II, we’ve had the concept that tariffs are MFN [most favored nation]. Products are subject to the same rate, regardless of which country they’re coming from. This would be a real sea change in the way U.S. tariffs work and essentially a reversion to the pre-World War II way tariffs were done.” 

Speaking about the recent update for USMCA exemptions in an NPGA Member Alert, NPGA stated that “the USMCA rules of origin are fairly complicated and can be found in 19 CFR Part 182 Appendix A.” 

NPGA also advised concerned businesses to maintain their own legal counsel during this time in order to best determine their course of action and whether their products meet USMCA stipulations.