October 15, 2026
Two months ago the federal government started charging a new tariff on imported quartz. If you build, own or manage apartments in North or South Carolina, you have probably already seen it in a countertop bid. Here is what changed, what the government data shows so far, what people in the industry are saying, and what I think it means for projects in our part of the country.
How we got here
This started as a petition to the U.S. International Trade Commission on September 15, 2025, filed by the Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America, according to the ITC's case page for investigation TA-201-79. Stone World reports the alliance includes Cambria, Dal-Tile, Guidoni and Hyundai L&C. The ITC found that imports were a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic producers, and Stone World reported the commission recommended tariffs of 25 to 40 percent.
A Section 201 case is different from the antidumping cases the industry has seen before. As the ITC explains, it does not require a finding of unfair trade, it covers imports from every country, and the president makes the final call on the remedy. The ITC also notes the relief is temporary, four years at first and no more than eight in total.
On July 31, President Trump signed the proclamation. It took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on August 15, 2026, and runs through August 14, 2030.
What it does
This is not a flat tariff. It is a tariff-rate quota. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the first year allows 13,006,426 square meters of quartz in at the lower rate, released in four quarterly pieces of 3,251,606 square meters. Under the proclamation's annex, quartz entered within the quota pays an extra 25 percent, and quartz entered after a quarter's quota fills pays 50 percent. The rates step down each year, to 19 and 47 percent in the final year, while the quota grows to 15,700,614 square meters.
The scope is broad. The annex covers slabs plus countertops, backsplashes, vanity tops, bar tops, shower surrounds and more, fabricated or not, and it covers quartz that is cut or finished in a third country. It does not cover quarried stone such as granite, marble, soapstone or quartzite. CBP notes the new duty can come on top of other duties, including antidumping and countervailing duties.
A lot of countries are exempt, including Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Israel and a long list of developing countries. Customs attorney Jennifer Diaz put it simply in a LinkedIn post the day the proclamation was signed: "What is notable is how many countries are exempt." She added that "China, India, Turkey, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the EU member states appear nowhere on the exclusion list."
The first quota is almost full
This is the number I would pay the most attention to right now. CBP's weekly quota status report dated October 13, 2026 shows the first quarter's quartz quota at 2,936,784 square meters, or 90.32 percent filled, with about a month left in the quarter, which ends November 14. Once it fills, covered imports pay 50 percent until the next quarter opens on November 15.
Bonnie Woo, who works in import sourcing, described the effect on LinkedIn: "The same container can cost 25% or 50% depending on which week of the quarter it clears." If your supplier is bringing in material from a covered country, ask where their shipments fall against the quota before you lock a price for a winter or spring delivery.
The industry is split
Domestic producers asked for this. Fabricators mostly did not. On a Stone World Podcast episode before the decision, Rich Katzmann, former executive director of the Rockheads Group fabricator association, described the cost debate at the June hearing. Cambria's team estimated about $188 added to an average single-family home, and the opposing coalition put it at more than $1,000. "It feels like, to me, that putting tariffs on your countertops, which is going to be greater than $1,000, doesn't feel like the right thing," Katzmann said.
Jared Wessel, a Hogan Lovells partner representing the Save Quartz Jobs Coalition, told the same podcast that fabricators needed to speak up locally: "The only way to really counter that is at the grassroots level. Every voice matters in this." In a May 1 letter to the ITC, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen warned the petitioners' proposal would "eliminate thousands of American blue-collar jobs, and raise housing prices."
What it means in the Carolinas
Our apartment pipeline is already shrinking. Northmarq reports about 20,650 units under construction in Charlotte in the second quarter, down 8 percent from a year earlier, with 2026 completions forecast at 13,165 units. In Raleigh-Durham, Northmarq counts fewer than 9,000 units under construction and expects 2026 deliveries of about 5,100 units, 32 percent below the region's ten-year average.
That means fewer jobs to bid and tighter budgets on the ones that move forward, and a tariff on the most common multifamily countertop material lands right on top of that. Charles Bowden, a senior team lead for MSI in Charlotte, made the point plainly on the Home Builders Association of Greater Charlotte's Framing the Issue podcast in May, before this tariff took effect: "At the end of the day, the consumer is the one who's absorbing the cost." In multifamily, that consumer is the owner on the front end and the renter after that.
The International Surface Fabricators Association offered practical advice in a write-up of its August webinar. Review open quotes and backlog, recalculate real jobs at current material cost, and pick two or three alternative colors before customers ask. One point matters for owners as much as fabricators: a 20 percent increase in material cost does not have to mean a 20 percent increase in the installed price, because material is only part of the job.
My take
After working Carolinas multifamily and commercial countertops since 1998, I would tell owners and GCs three things. Ask your fabricator where the quartz is made, because country of origin now drives cost. Look at exempt sources and at alternatives like quarried stone or solid surface where they fit the spec. And get escalation terms settled in writing on any job installing more than a few months out. The quota resets every quarter and the tariff runs until 2030, so this is a planning issue, not a one-quarter blip.
Sources
U.S. International Trade Commission, Quartz Surface Products Global Safeguard Investigation, Inv. No. TA-201-79: https://www.usitc.gov/investigations/import_injury/fact_sheets_usitc_global_safeguard_investigations/quartz_surface_products_ta-201-79
The White House, Proclamation To Facilitate Positive Adjustment to Competition from Imports of Quartz Surface Products: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/07/to-facilitate-positive-adjustment-to-competition-from-imports-of-quartz-surface-products/
Proclamation Annex: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ANNEX.pdf
Federal Register, 91 FR 50645 (August 5, 2026): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/05/2026-15975/to-facilitate-positive-adjustment-to-competition-from-imports-of-quartz-surface-products
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Quota Bulletin 26-601: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/quota/bulletins/qb-26-601-2027
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Quota Status Report, October 13, 2026: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2026-10/26_1013_commodity_status_report.pdf
Jennifer Diaz, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jenrdiaz_customscompliance-section201-tariffs-activity-7489095828377059328-_67q
Bonnie Woo, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bonnie-woo-7b74911b6_tradecompliance-tariffs-quartz-activity-7495701116098101248-_v5R
Stone World, Quartz safeguard case now sits on the president's desk (July 9, 2026): https://www.stoneworld.com/articles/95740-quartz-safeguard-case-now-sits-on-the-presidents-desk-trade-experts-say
Senators Cortez Masto and Rosen, letter to the ITC (May 1, 2026): https://savequartzjobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/5.1.2026-Quartz-201-Letter.pdf
Home Builders Association of Greater Charlotte, Framing the Issue, Tariffs, Shipping and Materials with Charles Bowden: https://www.podscan.fm/podcasts/framing-the-issue/episodes/tariffs-shipping-and-materials-with-charles-bowden
ISFA, Practical Steps for Navigating the New Quartz Safeguard: https://www.isfanow.org/news/practical-steps-for-navigating-the-new-quartz-safeguard
Northmarq, Charlotte Multifamily Q2 2026: https://www.northmarq.com/sites/default/files/docs/NMMarketInsights-Q22026-Charlotte-IAG.pdf
Northmarq, Raleigh-Durham Multifamily Q1 2026: https://www.northmarq.com/sites/default/files/docs/NMMarketInsights-Q12026-Raleigh.pdf