‘I can do terrible things’: Trump launches fresh tariffs tirade
The government has said that no response to Donald Trump’s revived trade onslaught is off the table, after the President warned he could still do “terrible things” to the US’s trading partners despite his ‘liberation day’ tariffs being deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister told reporters that while “no one wants a trade war”, no reciprocal action was “off the table” as Downing Street mulled its response to the President’s latest tariff blitz.
The US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the barrage of totemic ‘reciprocal’ tariffs that Trump announced in April last year was illegal, in a decision that has thrown dozens of trade deals struck between the White House and its partners since into disarray.
In a historic judgment, six of the nine justices sitting on America’s highest court ruled the President’s use of executive orders unilaterally to apply tariffs on US imports under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was unconstitutional.
Trump branded the six justices who found against the tariffs a “disgrace to our nation” at a press conference in which he also unveiled plans to levy 10 per cent tariffs on all US imports over and above current duties. On Saturday, he raised the tax to 15 per cent under a legacy law that only permits the levies to be in place for 150 days.
The President extended the string of threats to its US trading partners, warning on Monday that the Supreme Court had “unwittingly” handed him “far more powers and strength” to levy fresh tariffs than before the ruling.
“For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely ‘terrible’ things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades,” he wrote on his Truth Social website.
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The whipsawing response has plunged international trade relations into further uncertainty, with the European Union and India pulling out of trade talks until Washington clearly lays out how it will proceed.
EU lawmakers had been due to vote on the final agreement on Tuesday, but paused all work on the deal struck with the White House last summer until they received assurances about what the move meant for US-EU trade relations.
“Full clarity on what these new developments mean for the EU-US trade relationship is the absolute minimum that is required for us as the EU to make a clear-eyed assessment to decide on the next steps,” said Olof Gill, a commission spokesman.
The ruling has also threatened to upend the deal struck between Britain and the Trump administration last year, which brought the average tariff level on UK exports to America to among the lowest in the world. Should it come into force as threatened, the President’s blanket 15 per cent levy would mean the UK is one of a handful of countries to be in a worse trade position than before the ruling.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister confirmed business secretary Peter Kyle had spoken to his US counterpart, voicing his “concern” at the President’s reaction and urging the White House to honour the UK-US trade deal struck last year.
“Whilst we understand the uncertainty, British business and the public can be assured,” he told reporters on Monday. “We don’t expect this ruling to impact the majority of trade – we’ve already agreed on steel pharma and autos [and] the deals the US has agreed will remain in place.”
The spokesman pointed to comments made by US trade representative Jamieson Greer, who vowed to “stand by” deals the country had negotiated with other markets.
“We want them to understand these deals are going to be good deals,” Greer said in an interview with CBS. “We’re going to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them.”