In February, the US Supreme Court reined Donald Trump in, ruling that the import tariffs he imposed on EU countries, among others, were unlawful. As a result, companies that have already paid these tariffs, including flower exporters, are now receiving refunds from US Customs.
The import tariffs applied by the US government are a complex matter. Over the past two years, under Donald Trump, the rates changed as regularly as a Swiss clock runs. Since February 2025, Trump has been threatening to impose additional tariffs on imports from the EU and elsewhere, alongside several actual substantial increases. In early April 2025, he imposed high tariffs alleging that US national security was at stake. He did so under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The tariff increases came as a heavy blow to exporters supplying the US. Holex Flower is the largest Dutch flower exporter to the United States, shipping its flowers to the US by air while bearing the freight costs, customs clearance costs and import duties. Managing Director Paul Hoogenboom says that on 9 April, shortly before Mother’s Day, he was confronted with steep import tariffs of 20% introduced by Trump on products from the EU, including flowers. The import tariff of 20% came on top of a new base tariff of 10%. Exporters had to deal a cost increase of 23.2 percent (the regular tariff was 6,8%).
