The Court of International Trade yesterday ruled that President Donald Trump did not have the authority to impose punishing tariffs on virtually every U.S. trading partner in April, eliminating, for now, the levies that ignited a global trade war.
According to reporting in The Wall Street Journal, the “decision on Wednesday from the Court of International Trade blocked one of the Trump administration’s most audacious assertions of executive power, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Shortly after the decision was handed down, lawyers for the Trump administration notified the court they will appeal.”
Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have caused confusion and concern among many marine manufacturers and businesses, including RIB builder Highfield Boats, components manufacturer and importer Imtra and dealership Nautical Ventures.
Additional reporting from The Wall Street Journal said that the trade war is likely far from over, and that the ruling is unlikely to stop the president from trying to rewrite global commerce rules.
The New York Times reported that it was unclear “precisely when and how the tariff collections would grind to a halt. The ruling gave the executive branch up to 10 days to complete the bureaucratic process of ending them.”
The “ruling does not affect tariffs issued by the Trump Administration under separate legal authorities, including levies on steel, aluminum and cars, and others that Mr. Trump has threatened on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other critical products,” The New York Times reported.
“This is just one more bump in the tariff road that we are going to be on for as long as Trump remains in office,” Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Singapore-based Hinrich Foundation, told The Wall Street Journal. “He loves tariffs, and he loves the idea of being able to impose them at will, and I don’t think he’s going to give that up easily.”
