On Wednesday, a federal panel prevented President Trump from imposing some of his highest tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, saying federal law does not grant him “unlimited authority” to tax imports from almost any country in the world.
Before Trump took office, no president had ever attempted to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law, to impose tariffs on other nations. The law, which is primarily concerned with embargoes and trade sanctions, moreover, does not even mention tariffs.
However, the president adopted a new interpretation of the rule, first announcing and then suspending, high taxes on dozens of countries in April. He also used the law to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico, accused of being responsible for the spread of fentanyl in the United States.
On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade, the top federal legal body overseeing such matters, ruled that Trump’s duties exceed any authority granted to the president. A bipartisan three-judge panel, therefore, essentially declared that many tariffs promoted by Trump were issued illegally.
The court gave the government up to ten days to end the duties in question. The verdict, according to several insiders, is a blow to the president internationally as well. Trump was using tariffs a powerful strategic weapon to force favorable trade agreements for the U.S. with at least eighteen nations around the world.
These agreements are still being negotiated, and some of the president’s top aides had said in recent days that an unfavorable ruling could jeopardize the talks.
For this reason, after Wednesday’s decision, the federal government immediately filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
This week’s ruling, however, will not affect duties imposed by the administration under other legislation, including those on steel, aluminum and automobiles, nor those that Trump has threatened to impose on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other strategic products.
A White House spokesman, Kush Desai, harshly rebuked the court, stating: “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency”. Desai further added that Trump would use “every lever of executive power to address this crisis.”
