Since returning to office, US President Donald Trump has made tariffs, or the threat of them, his preferred economic weapon. He has raised import tariffs to absurdly high levels and imposed them on both allies and enemies, only to quickly reverse his decision and halt or lower the charges.
While big merchants have warned of higher costs for American consumers and possibly bare store shelves, markets and world leaders have tried to predict his next steps. The president has asserted his authority to impose tariffs unilaterally. He claims that he cannot wait for Congress to enact legislation because, in his capacity as president, he is reacting to a national economic emergency.
This effectively meant that posting on Truth Social to send a threatening letter to a hardballing nation was as simple as that (ask the European Union, which he described as “very difficult to deal with” in discussions last week).
But the US Court of International Trade declared late Wednesday that he had overreached the scope of his emergency powers. The court gave the White House ten days to remove nearly all tariffs, which it claims were imposed unlawfully. The tariffs will remain in effect for the time being after the White House filed an appeal and a federal appeals court delayed the trade court’s decision.
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