DONALD TRUMP’S global tariffs have been blocked by the court, ruling them as illegal as the White House declares a national emergency – but vows to fight back.
The Court of International Trade ruling is a big setback for the US president, who has sought to reshape global trade and put America first by using its economic heft to cut deals.
4
4
4
A US federal court in New York on Wednesday blocked most of the import taxes from going into effect, ruling that the president had overstepped his authority.
Trump has started a global trade war with nearly every country by instituting a minimum 10 per tariff on their exports into the US.
He also slapped a 25 per cent tariff on Mexico and Canada, saying he needed to levies to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and the horror drug Fentanyl.
The court’s order could spell an end to Trump’s international trade war as it bars Trump’s most sweeping tariffs, effectively erasing most of the trade restrictions Trump has announced since taking office.
But Trump is likely to appeal and take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said: “Foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the Unites States has fueled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits.
“These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base – facts that the court did not dispute.
“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency. President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness.”
The ruling does not state that tariffs themselves are illegal, but that the executive branch does not have the authority to impose them without Congress.
The president used a 1977 federal economic emergency law to justify a range of levies.
What has the court ruled?
By Annabel Bate, Foreign News Reporter
A FEDERAL court in New York handed President Donald Trump a gargantuan setback Wednesday.
The court blocked his plan to impose massive taxes on imports from almost every country in the world.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency.
He attempted to use this as a way to justify the tariffs.
The US Court of International Trade has jurisdiction over civil cases involving trade, meaning its decisions can be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court.
This is where the legal challenges to Trump tariffs are expected to end up.
The administration had argued that courts had approved then-President Richard Nixon’s emergency use of tariffs in a 1971 economic and financial crisis that arose when the US suddenly devalued the dollar by ending a policy that linked the US currency to the price of gold.
The Nixon administration successfully cited its authority under the 1917 Trading With Enemy Act, which preceded and supplied some of the legal language later used in IEPPA.
The court disagreed, deciding that the President’s sweeping tariffs exceeded his authority to regulate imports under IEEPA.
It also said the tariffs did nothing to deal with problems they were supposed to address.
In their case, the states noted that America’s trade deficits hardly amount of a sudden emergency.
The three-judge panel wrote in an unsigned opinion: “The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (“IEEPA”) delegates these powers to the president in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.
“The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder.”
One of Trump’s key aides, Stephen Miller, attacked the ruling in a post on social media saying: “The judicial coup is out of control.”
Trump memorably held up a board showing rates he was about to set individual trading partners in the White House’s Rose Garden when he announced the tariffs as part of a “liberation day”.
China was clobbered with 34 per cent tariffs, Vietnam 46 per cent, Thailand 36 per cent and Cambodia 49 per cent.
Tariffs on China were eventually increased to a whopping 145 per cent as Trump sought to begin negotiations.
The ten per cent on Britain was at the bottom of the sliding scale devised by Trump’s officials.
Markets were thrown into turmoil but calmed after he paused the larger tariffs for 90 days.
He also suspended some of the higher duties pending negotiations with individual countries and blocs.
Britain has signed a new trade deal with Trump following the imposition of the tariffs – how that will be affected is not yet clear.
A former US trade official described he bombshell ruling as a “big setback” for the President.
Frank Lavin told the BBC: “It’s not going to be a major reordering of international trade.
“It’s not going to address the trade deficit and the United States is going to end up more or less where it started.”
As stock markets opened, the UK among others were in positive territory following the tariffs news.
Why has Trump hit China, Canada, and Mexico with tariffs?
DONALD Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Chinese imports to the US and has threatened 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. But, why did he propose the levies?
China:
- Trump believes China has not done enough to stop the production of chemicals used to make the drug fentanyl.
- China has slammed Trump for the claim and described fentanyl as America’s problem.
- The country also said the tariffs are a “serious violation” of the World Trade Organization rules.
- China is therefore filing a lawsuit with the WTO against the US for “wrongful practice”.
- China serves as a major supplier of auto parts to the US.
- Phones and computers along with other key electronic devices were also in the top imports from China last year, according to Commerce Department Data.
- In 2023, the US imported around $427 billion worth of products from China in total, according to the US Census Bureau.
- Data reveals that 78% of all smartphones imported from the US came from China.
- Trump’s tariff threat has sparked fears of price rises for fashion items and toys.
- Beijing has responded by outlining its own tariffs on American goods, sparking fears of an all-out trade war between the two powerhouses.
Canada:
- Trump doubled his initial 25% tariff proposal on Canadian steel and aluminum after Ontario Premier Doug Ford countered by charging 25% more for the electricity his province provides to about 1.5 million Americans in Minnesota, New York, and Michigan.
- The president said the new 50% levies on Canadian steel and aluminum will take effect on the morning of March 12.
- Ford, on the other hand, instructed Ontario’s Independent Electricity System to implement a $7-per-megawatt-per-hour fee on all power exports to the three US states.
- The Ontario premier warned that he “will not hesitate to increase” the levies or completely shut off power to the three US northeastern states.
- Trump ignited a trade war with Canada and Mexico during his first days in office as part of a campaign promise to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the United States.
- He said both countries had not done enough to halt the drug flow and the mass influx of migrants from reaching US soil.
Mexico:
- Mexico has managed to twice postpone Trump’s tariffs on Mexican goods.
- On February 1, Trump signed an executive order to impose tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China.
- But, on February 3, Trump agreed to pause the levies against Canada and Mexico after the countries took steps to appease Trump’s concerns on border security and drug trafficking.
- On March 4, Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports go into effect.
- But, on March 6, the president postponed the 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and some from Canada for a month.
- Trump credited Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s progress on border security and drug smuggling as a reason for the pause on the levies.
- Still, Trump has maintained that on April 2 the US will begin imposing reciprocal tariffs on all its trading partners, including Mexico.
4
