WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products.
Now a federal appeals court has thrown a roadblock in his path.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that Trump went too far when he declared national emergencies to justify imposing sweeping import taxes on almost every country on earth. The ruling largely upheld a May decision by a specialized federal trade court in New York. But the 7-4 appeals court decision tossed out a part of that ruling striking down the tariffs immediately, allowing his administration time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling was a big setback for Trump, whose erratic trade policies have rocked financial markets, paralyzed businesses with uncertainty and raised fears of higher prices and slower economic growth.
Which tariffs did the court knock down?
The court’s decision centers on the tariffs Trump slapped in April on almost all U.S. trading partners and levies he imposed before that on China, Mexico and Canada.
Trump on April 2 — Liberation Day, he called it — imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs of up to 50% on countries with which the United States runs a trade deficit and 10% baseline tariffs on almost everybody else.
The president later suspended the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to give countries time to negotiate trade agreements with the United States — and reduce their barriers to American exports. Some of them did — including the United Kingdom, Japan and the European Union — and agreed to lopsided deals with Trump to avoid even bigger tariffs.
Those that didn’t knuckle under — or otherwise incurred Trump’s wrath — got hit harder earlier this month. Laos got rocked with a 40% tariff, for instance, and Algeria with a 30% levy. Trump also kept the baseline tariffs in place.
Claiming extraordinary power to act without congressional approval, Trump justified the taxes under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act by declaring the United States’ longstanding trade deficits “a national emergency.”
And the uncertainty in the meantime will drive away even more manufacturing and suppliers.
It’s even worse. Because the Orange Jackass axed the duty-free import exception on small purchases under $200, bunch of countries have just said they’re gonna stop mailing shit here because they have no idea what the hell the rules are anymore.
The private operators for packages still work, but then you’ll often pay a lot more for shipping than the actual product. Large corpos are looking to set up warehouses with bulk import and local fulfilment centers. Small businesses are out of luck. And with the rules changing all the time nobody wants to bet on setting up local production. Christmas this year is going to be really expensive in the USA.
Yep. Im seeing a lot of people i follow on socials getting screwed. They had packages already on the way or had just purchased something only to get an email saying ‘tough luck’ basically.
Nothing changes for now, the appeals court left the tariffs in place pending a SCOTUS appeal. This has been going on for a while and it’s just another turn of the crank.
The supreme court reinstates them next Tuesday?
Correct.
The same thing that usually happens - they just get their stacked SCOTUS to rubber stamp them.
Is there any working mechanism for collecting the tariffs yet?
Most of the major carriers can. It’s the new usps tariffs that’s still not setup with third party vendors for tariff collection.
Collecting? Yes.
Paying back out to the government? Not at all.
