Trump tariffs can remain in effect, US appeals court rules
US President Donald Trump can continue to enforce his global tariffs for now, a federal appeals court held in a win for the president on one of his signature economic policies.
Advertisement
The order Tuesday by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit extends an earlier, short-term reprieve for the administration as it presses a challenge to a lower court ruling last month that blocked the tariffs. The Justice Department had argued that US officials' concerns about ongoing trade negotiations outweighed the economic harm claimed by the small businesses that sued.
The Washington-based court put the case on an expedited track, citing the 'issues of exceptional importance' at stake, and scheduled arguments for July 31. The court did not offer a detailed reason for siding with the administration at this stage, indicating in the order that the government had met its burden for showing that keeping the lower court's injunction on hold was 'warranted'. No judge noted a dissent.
The Trump administration asked the appeals court to step in after the US Court of International Trade last month ruled that Trump had misused an emergency law to implement the tariffs. Absent swift intervention by the US Supreme Court, the levies will likely stay in place for months, if not longer, as the rest of the legal fight plays out before the Washington-based appellate court.
Tuesday's order comes a month before Trump's own 90-day pause on most of his sweeping 'reciprocal' tariffs is set to expire. On July 9, US tariff rates are set to increase drastically for many nations, absent a trade or further extension. Goods from the European Union, for instance, are facing a 50 per cent levy.
Advertisement
Companies led by New York wine importer V.O.S. Selections Inc. claimed that letting the tariffs go into effect would lead to much higher costs and lower sales, with some of them likely to end up in bankruptcy. The administration argued that blocking the tariffs would disrupt US diplomacy and intrude upon the president's power to conduct foreign affairs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
ByteDance helps jewellery firm Lao Feng Xiang push AI glasses to China's elderly
Advertisement Lao Feng Xiang debuted their initial line of wearable gadgets at Wednesday's opening of the International Exhibition of Senior Care, Rehabilitation Medicine and Healthcare, the world's biggest senior care expo, that is being held in the company's home city of Shanghai until Friday. Powered by ByteDance's AI model Doubao , Lao Feng Xiang's hi-tech eyewear – marketed on the mainland as a 'smart assistant' for the elderly – can help translate menus, interpret instructions about medication and chat with users, according to Wednesday's WeChat post by the jewellery store chain operator. 'In the future, Lao Feng Xiang will continue to plough resources into the field of science and technology for the silver economy,' company chairman Yang Yi said at the Shanghai expo. The so-called silver economy refers to a new market that serves the needs of the country's rapidly ageing population. The company's foray into smart glasses reflects a surge of fresh interest in this wearables segment on the mainland, as new capabilities are made possible by AI to cater to the country's greying population. Lao Feng Xiang chairman Yang Yi, right, tries on a pair of the company's new line of smart glasses powered by ByteDance's artificial intelligence technology. Photo: Handout Yang said Lao Feng Xiang would continue to optimise its new products and cater to 'more consumers'.
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China to remove tariffs on nearly all goods from Africa as both criticise US trade moves
Twenty more African countries , mostly from the continent's middle-income nations, are set to gain access to the world's largest consumer market duty-free as Beijing plans to remove tariffs for all products from every African nation except eSwatini. The measure was announced as African ministers joined Beijing at a meeting in central China affiliated with the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Amid the tariff war , representatives from China and African nations accused the United States of disrupting the global economic and trade order and harming the collective interests of the international community. 05:05 Trump and Xi discuss Taiwan, troubled US-China trade ties in call breaking stand-off Trump and Xi discuss Taiwan, troubled US-China trade ties in call breaking stand-off Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a letter presented to the meeting in Changsha in Hunan province on Wednesday, said China was willing to extend zero-tariff measures to 53 African countries with diplomatic ties to China for all items. Only eSwatini – the sole African nation that supports Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province – is excluded from the measures. The plan expands on the policy announced at the 2024 FOCAC summit in Beijing which granted 33 least-developed African countries (LDCs) – such as Uganda and Ethiopia – zero-tariff treatment. Xi said China would 'provide more convenience for the least developed countries in Africa to export to China', according to a readout released by China's foreign ministry.
RTHK
3 hours ago
- RTHK
Tech losses lead Hang Seng Index to lower close
Tech losses lead Hang Seng Index to lower close The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended the day down 331.56 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 24,035.38. File photo: RTHK Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong ended mostly lower on Thursday, led by declines in the tech sector, as markets struggled to sustain the positive momentum from the Sino-US trade talks that lacked concrete details. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index ended the day down 331.56 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 24,035.38. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 1.53 percent to end at 8,729.96 while the Hang Seng Tech Index slumped 2.20 percent to 5,331.33. Mainland Chinese stocks ended up mixed, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.01 percent at 3,402.66 and the Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.11 percent down at 10,234.33 The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.26 percent to close at 2,067.15. Among major losers, chipmaker SMIC fell 2 percent to a one-week low. Alibaba weakened 3.2 percent and EV maker Xpeng slid 6.7 percent. The CSI Rare Earth Index closed flat after slipping nearly 1 percent in the morning session and continued to hover near its seven-month high. A trade truce between the world's two biggest economies was back on track, US President Donald Trump said, a day after negotiators from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs. Under the agreement, Beijing will lift export curbs on rare earth minerals and the United States will restore Chinese students' access to its universities, Trump said on Truth Social. Yet the terms remain subject to final approvals, with details notably absent. The 55 percent tariffs on Chinese imports will also stay, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. "We still don't know if what Trump says will actually happen. It's disappointing that the tariffs rates were not dialled down at all and tech curbs on China were not even mentioned," said Jason Chan, senior investment strategist at Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong. The talks left key issues, like chip exports, unaddressed, leaving room for conflicts in the future, and no one knows for how long the current truce will last, he added. Chinese markets have been struggling to recover from trade shocks for the past two months after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2 that threatened the global trade system. The CSI 300 Index has barely eked out any gains since then, while the Hang Seng Index has climbed 3.5 percent, but the two are underperforming the nearly 10 percent bounce in the MSCI World Index . The market is less sensitive to trade talks and investors are shifting focus to economic fundamentals, Wang Zhuo, partner at Zhuozhu Investment, said. "The key for China now is to bolster manufacturers' confidence and break the deflationary trend." (Reuters/Xinhua)
