
Donald Trump news: ‘Liberation Day' Tariffs temporarily reinstated as court considers White House appeal
Tariffs imposed on all nations by the Trump Administration, that were dramatically blocked by a US trade court on Wednesday, will remain in effect as the legal process continues.
US President Donald Trump's controversial global tariffs have been temporarily reinstated while a court reviews an appeal filed by the White House.
This development follows a ruling by a panel of three federal judges who blocked the tariffs, stating that the President had 'overstepped his authority.'
The Trump Administration is expected to take the case to the supreme court if it loses the appeal.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a stark warning, claiming the US 'cannot function' if Mr Trump has his 'trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.'
Ms Leavitt urged the Supreme Court to 'put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country.'
Australia will continue to push for the removal of Donald Trump's 'unjustified' tariffs following a US court's decision to block the taxes on imported goods from going into effect.
Trade Minister Don Farrell said the Government would study the ruling closely, noting the duties might be subject to further legal proceedings.
'The Albanese Government has been consistent in the view that these tariffs on Australian imports into the US are unjustified,' he said.
'We will continue to engage and strongly advocate for the removal of tariffs.
'The Albanese Government will always stand up for Australia's national interests, including Australian jobs and Australian industries.'
Australian goods are subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff, while all steel and aluminium imports to the US have been slapped with 25 per cent tariffs.
Labor has sought to temper expectations on whether it can land a deal with the US to remove the tariffs.
The lawsuit was brought on by the Liberty Justice Centre on behalf of five small US businesses that import goods, and was the first major challenge to the tariffs.
The Trump Administration immediately lodged an appeal of the decision, saying: 'It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency.'
The American court ruled the US Constitution gave the Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other countries, which were not overruled by the president's emergency powers to safeguard the economy.
As the Trump Administration moves to stop Harvard University teaching international students, Australia's ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd has vowed the embassy was working with the US on the impact of the decision on Australians and their families.
— with Reuters
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Sky News AU
41 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Jim Chalmers resorting to new taxes is a misguided attempt to ‘purchase prosperity' as private investment in the Australian economy crashes
Earlier this month, a collapsed high-voltage wire near Strathfield Station brought Sydney's entire railway network to a halt, forcing commuters to endure days of chaos and delay. The State Government and rail officials scrambled to apologise, offering a fare-free travel day as compensation. But no number of free rides can repair the ancient cabling, rigid work practices, and flawed design that make the city's rail system so fragile. Sydney's rail meltdown is more than a transport failure - it is a metaphor for Australia's broader political and economic malaise. A system that appears to function smoothly on the surface is merely running on inertia. Beneath the facade lies decay: decades of short-termism, underinvestment, and complacency. This week's news that business investment is falling confirms the rot has spread to the foundations of the national economy and that the current government has little appetite for structural reform. Non-mining investment contracted by 1.6 per cent nationally in the March quarter, while private capital expenditure dropped by 5.3 per cent in Victoria in the three months to March. Yet private investment is the engine of job creation, productivity, and wage growth. Without it, the reverse holds: business shrinks, employment stagnates, and economic momentum falters. Capital - the lifeblood of any economy - flows to where it is welcomed and where returns are reliable. Under Treasurer Jim Chalmers, businesses are increasingly wary of investing in Australia, deterred by high costs, regulatory burdens, and policy uncertainty. The Albanese government's Future Made in Australia strategy risks remaining a slogan unless it can reverse this investment drought. But rising energy costs and an increasingly unreliable power supply are driving manufacturers offshore. On top of that, Australia's high labour costs and complex industrial relations system deter new ventures. CSL Chairman Brian McNamee captured the mood when he said businesses were reacting to 'an accumulation of hostile policies and government crowding out of enterprise'. Investment capital, he warned, 'will find homes elsewhere that are more welcoming and reward risk-taking'. These cracks in our economic edifice didn't appear overnight. Like Sydney's ageing power lines and outdated rolling stock, the deterioration has been years in the making. Australia's GDP per capita has now declined for seven consecutive quarters - a sign that, were it not for population growth through immigration, the country would be in recession. Productivity, the key driver of long-term prosperity, has flatlined. Over the past two decades, it has grown at just 0.7 per cent per year. In the last year, growth was a mere 0.5 per cent. Small wonder that living standards have been slipping since the pandemic. Whatever growth the economy shows is increasingly the product of government spending - now at 27 per cent of GDP, up two points from pre-COVID levels. But governments cannot purchase prosperity any more than they can restore a rail system with free travel days. Eventually, they resort to new taxes. Mr Chalmers' proposal to tax unrealised capital gains in superannuation is one such example - a measure that will discourage long-term savings and further undermine private investment. Self-managed super funds, often used to back small business and start-ups, will be particularly affected. For a cautionary tale, we need only look to Germany, a country long admired for its engineering excellence and export-driven economy. But as Wolfgang Münchau explains in 'Kaputt: The End of the German Miracle ' , complacency and underinvestment have taken their toll. Germany's efficiency endured as a reputation long after it disappeared as a rea lity. The nation failed to keep pace with the digital era, relying instead in analogue infrastructure and unreliable energy sources. Dependence on Russian gas and costly renewables sent electricity prices soaring - now among the highest in Europe. Meanwhile, Germany's vaunted rail system has become a symbol of national decline. Deutsche Bahn, once synonymous with precision and quality, is now plagued by delays, technical faults, and overcrowding. In 2024, just 62 per cent of long-distance trains arrived on time. In April, Swiss operator SBB cut two cross-border services, fearing Germany's dysfunction would spill over into their own network. The parallels with Australia are sobering. Both nations rode waves of prosperity driven by commodity exports while neglecting the need for reform. Both now face the consequences: rigid regulatory systems, soaring power prices, stagnant productivity, and eroded competitiveness. And in both countries, the signs of decline were ignored until something broke. Germany kept betting against the digital age. Australia, too, risks believing its own myth of resilience and economic strength, long after the underlying conditions have shifted. If we don't act now to address structural weaknesses, the next broken wire, literal or metaphorical, will leave more than just a railway in chaos. Nick Cater is a senior fellow at Menzies Research Centre and a regular contributor to Sky News Australia

ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Liberal dysfunction allows Labor to get away scot-free on emissions failure
One consequence of a broken, distracted and internally-focused opposition is that it gives the government leeway to do what it wants. Unencumbered. Add a thumping electoral majority to the mix and what might be considered confidence can easily morph into hubris. Labor is easily managing politically vexed problems while the dysfunction of the other side chews up endless column inches. And to be fair, the ongoing fracturing of the Coalition is indeed a compelling story. Australians voted for a House of Representatives in which as many as 110 seats out of 150 could broadly be categorised as "progressive". The remainder are conservative. That the Coalition would conclude from that result, as some conservatives loudly assert, that the answer is to veer even harder to the right by doubling down on culture wars is rather surprising. "Really? What voters really wanted was a culture war out on the right?" said former Liberal candidate and political consultant David Gazzard. "If only we'd had a big old dinger with right wing ideology they would have voted for us?" It's hard to shake the impression the Coalition continues to miss the May 3 memo from voters. Sussan Ley and David Littleproud — both perched atop the restive dragon tails of their respective party rooms — have determined that net zero needs to be debated, reviewed and potentially dumped. As one reader noted to this columnist, the whole scene is "like going to a party with old mates and realising you got your shit together and they're still on the bongs". While the Coalition figures out how to mature its energy and climate idea over the next six years — during which time the renewables rollout will continue to deepen — the real game is with the government and what it's doing and not doing to manage a series of tricky decision points. Nowhere is this more evident than Labor's move to green-light an extension to Woodside's North West shelf gas project. Given the backlash, Labor was politically canny to postpone its decision from the original deadline that would have coincided with the election. Seats the government nearly lost to climate action independents such as Fremantle in WA and Bean in the ACT would no doubt have fallen. Wills in Victoria might have gone to the Greens. Adam Bandt might still be in parliament. When it came on Wednesday, the project approval itself was no great surprise. Woodside has been jumping through existing state and federal regulatory and environmental hoops and clearing them for the best part of seven years. Manufacturing unions and WA's mining industry are delighted. Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable told the ABC on Friday that future critical minerals rare earth production needs the gas at competitive prices to develop those resources. Murray Watt, who replaced Tanya Plibersek in the environment portfolio after the May 3 election, is pretty much the final rubber stamp. But by extending the operating licence for the NorthWest Shelf from 2030 to 2070, Woodside and its investment partners can now work to unlock the vast Browse Basin off the WA coast, which climate groups have branded a "carbon bomb". Watt has given Woodside until this coming week to agree to a number of final conditions. These likely relate mostly to the proximate impact on Indigenous rock art of industrial emissions released during liquefaction of gas for export. While relevant, such plant-level impacts are relatively minor. The emissions that really matter are those associated with the energy-intensive process of converting extracted gas into a liquefied form for export shipment. Alongside "fugitive emissions" from leaks and flaring, such energy use across the gas industry accounts for a significant portion of overall national emissions. Potentially up to 10 per cent a year, according to Climate Change Authority data. Critically for Labor, those "scope two" emissions don't come for free. They add to the nationwide pollution burden and they weigh on Australia's global reputation as a fossil fuel super polluter that exports "scope three" emissions at an industrial scale. Australia is about to ramp up its efforts in coming months to win hosting rights to next year's UN climate summit and younger voters continue to register alarm over the lack of urgency over climate action. All of this should be uncomfortable ground for Labor. Were the Liberals not still arguing about the basic entry-level proposition of whether net zero by 2050 should remain on their policy books, they might instead be squeezing the government over the North West shelf decision and its climate policy performance more broadly. Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen is currently awaiting advice from the Climate Change Authority on what the nation's 2035 emissions reduction target should be. Authority chairman Matt Kean — a former NSW Liberal treasurer and energy minister appointed by Labor nearly a year ago — is busy crunching the numbers on a proposed emissions target for 2035. The range the authority believes is consistent with Australia meeting its obligations to the Paris climate agreement (which seeks to limit global average temperature increases "to well below 2 degrees Celsius") would be an emissions cut of between 65 per cent and 75 per cent of the nation's level in 2005. That would extend the current 2030 target for a 43 per cent reduction. This column understands the Climate Change Authority's modelling does not currently include the impact from the Woodside extension or Browse, but that it will be significant. That work is being done now. For Bowen the yet-to-be answered question is how exactly this gets managed under his existing Safeguard Mechanism policy. A carrot and stick approach that aims to force down industrial and resources emissions in coming years, the mechanism works by penalising big polluters that fail to adopt low-emissions alternatives or by making them buy a limited pool of carbon offsets. Kean, who has plenty of experience in this space, will no doubt be urging Labor to make Woodside pay its own emissions bill rather than socialising the cost on the rest of the economy. Kean might indeed be telling Bowen that the company, which maintains an official "aspiration of net zero by 2050 or sooner", be required to source the energy it needs for its export operations from renewables rather than fossil fuels. That would be expensive. But so is decarbonising an entire economy. Watt does not appear to have put any such condition on Woodside, but that does not mean the issue now goes away. Labor is racing to pass its environmental protection legislation when parliament resumes next month. The Greens, whom Labor needs in the Senate, will again likely insist that climate impacts of big new projects like Browse be taken into consideration. Labor counters that its Safeguard Mechanism should be the primary policy of industrial emissions action. But Australians are yet to see firm evidence it's working as advertised. Indeed the government continues to whistle past the graveyard on national emissions. Official quarterly data released on Friday shows Australia's greenhouse gas reduction performance has tanked. Emissions inched lower last year by an essentially invisible 0.05 per cent to an estimated 446.4 million tonnes, the fourth year in a row that progress has stalled. To get emissions down to 350 million tonnes — the legislated 2030 target — will now require six straight years in which pollution falls by an average 3.6 per cent. A tall order, you might say. The reasons behind this weak performance are equally discouraging. Agricultural emissions fell 2 per cent last year because crop production declined. Energy emissions were up 2.2 per cent because lower hydro generation led to more reliance on coal power. Meanwhile transport was up 1.9 per cent as aviation consumption reached a record. The only good news was from industry, where emissions fell 5 per cent thanks to technology and production changes in chemicals and metals sectors. Labor's safeguard mechanism is "inadequate" for the challenges facing the nation because of emissions such as the NorthWest Shelf, warns Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Climate Council, a group that campaigns against climate pollution. "There's no way to sequester those emissions," McKenzie says. "If you allow your fossil fuel sector to expand and you don't have tight enough targets in the safeguard that put pressure on those projects to cut emissions, then other sectors like agriculture and transport have to do more. "The idea that this is an offshore problem is entirely false because any fossil fuel project is using fossil fuels for export. "So we have to account for that climate pollution in Australia." It's a point the opposition might care to make. If it wasn't so busy toying with a world where doing nothing is the apparent answer.

Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Labor's unrealised gains tax sparking 'real panic' for small businesses, Chartered Accountants ANZ's Tony Negline warns
There is a 'real panic' over Labor's plan to double the tax rate on super funds above $3 million and target unrealised capital gains, a leading self-managed super fund expert has declared. Join to watch the full interview on Business Weekend at 11am (AEST). Labor's plan to hit unrealised capital gains has sparked concerns amongst small business owners and farmers who hold assets in their SMSFs. If the change is legislated, they will be forced to pay 30 per cent tax on the assets' increase above the $3m threshold despite not reaping the paper gain from it. Chartered Accountants ANZ's super and financial services leader Tony Negline said 70 per cent of his company's members did not favour the policy, with many concerned about the taxing of unrealised gains. 'We think unrealised gains is a major issue,' Mr Negline said. 'It's a terrible issue for farmers because the value of farm properties, in some cases, is going up dramatically, but the increase in cash flow is not matching that. 'So they're then saying, 'How do I pay this tax bill?' 'Small businesses, such as farmers (or) any small business that has their commercial property in their self-managed fund, has got real concerns. 'One of our members described to me yesterday, in some cases, there's a real panic.' Alongside concerns from farmers and small businesses about the tax, others have warned this will hurt startups. Wilson Asset Management's founder Geoff Wilson said investment will tighten and move away from the high-risk sector. 'People will move away from taking risks. They'll restructure their investments. It could be more money into the family home or their children's homes or their primary place of residence or their grandchildren's homes," Mr Wilson told 'More money away from risk capital and supporting corporate Australia - small and medium-sized companies in corporate Australia. It's the lifeblood of Australia.' After Labor's sweeping election victory, the Albanese government now only needs the support of the Greens to get the super tax legislation through the Senate. The Greens called for the threshold to be lowered to $2m, but indexed over time. Labor has tried to get the legislation through the Senate multiple times, at one point attempting to link it with a bill which would have scrapped debit card surcharges and reduce surcharges on credit cards. However, it was opposed by Senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie, who joined forces with the Coalition to defeat the proposals.