US Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs, Rules President Overstepped Authority

Federal trade court blocks sweeping tariffs on all countries, administration vows appeal as economic uncertainty mounts

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

President Donald Trump's broad tariff policy was overturned by a US Federal Trade Court on Wednesday, which found that the president had overreached himself by using the declaration of a national emergency to support the tariffs on trade deficits. Plans to appeal the ruling that prohibits tariffs on almost every nation in the world were promptly announced by the Trump administration.

Trump's "Liberation Day tariffs"—duties levied on imports from all countries, including what one expert said covered "literally every country in the world, including some penguins"—are the specific focus of the court's decision. Prior steel and aluminium tariffs that were imposed using separate legal procedures are unaffected by the ruling.

Dr. Scott French, an economics lecturer at the University of New South Wales who examined the decision in an ABC News Australia interview stated, "The ruling said that the president doesn't have the authority to declare a trade deficit a national emergency and use that emergency to impose tariffs." "Those tariffs must be imposed by an act of Congress or by other laws."

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