Trump's ‘liberation day' tariffs blocked by US trade court
Investing.com-- President Donald Trump's proposed reciprocal trade tariffs on major U.S. trading partners were blocked by a federal court on Wednesday, on the grounds that the president overstepped his authority.
The Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that Congress held exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries, and that Trump's emergency powers did not supersede this authority.
Wednesday's ruling was on a lawsuit filed by the Liberty Justice Center on the behalf of five small U.S. businesses that import goods from the countries targeted by Trump's tariffs.
The trade court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which was invoked by Trump to carry out his tariff agenda, did not grant the president sufficient 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,' the court said in its ruling.
Wednesday's ruling poses a fresh challenge for Trump's agenda to impose steep trade tariffs on countries with large trade surpluses with the United States. But the White House can appeal against the ruling.
Trump had initially unveiled his planned tariffs in early April– what the president dubbed as 'liberation day.' Trump announced double-digit levies on several major U.S. trading partners, and also targeted countries he alleged were trade proxies for China.
But he had shortly after announced a 90-day extension in the planned tariffs, except for China. Trump's tariffs on China rose as high as 245% in April, before Washington and Beijing agreed to deescalate earlier in May.
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