A US appeals court has ruled that US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on most of the world’s countries can stay in place, a day after the Court of International Trade found that he did not have the unilateral power to impose them, the BBC reported.
On 28 May, the Court of International Trade ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) invoked by the White House did not give the president unilateral authority to impose tariffs, the 29 May report said.
The court said the US Constitution gave Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other nations, and that this was not superseded by the president’s remit to safeguard the economy.
However, the Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling and, a day later, a federal appeals court granted the White House’s bid to temporarily suspend the lower court’s order while the case is litigated.
In its appeal, the Trump administration said the decision issued by the trade court had improperly second-guessed the president and threatened to undo months of trade negotiations, the report said.
“The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy,” it said in the filing.
Shortly before the tariff reprieve ruling from the appeals court, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing: “America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
In a social media post commenting on the lower court ruling Trump had written: “Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.”
The Court of International Trade ruling on Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs was based on two separate cases – one brought by the non-partisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of several small businesses that import goods from countries that were targeted by the duties, and the other brought by a coalition of US state governments, the BBC wrote.
The ruling also blocked a separate set of tariffs the Trump administration had imposed on China, Mexico and Canada, in response to what the US administration said was the unacceptable flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the USA, the BBC wrote.
Meanwhile, the White House had suspended or revised many of its duties while trade negotiations continued, the report said.
