Trump tariffs: Legal twist as court rules in favour of trade levies
President Trump can legally keep his tariffs in place for the moment, a federal appeals court has ruled – just a day after his trade policies were “declared to be invalid” by a US court.
The fresh ruling comes just over a day after the lesser known US Court of International Trade found that tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico was an overstretch of his Presidential authority.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US President said: “Fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade.”
He added: “Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America?”
“Is it purely a hatred of “TRUMP?” What other reason could it be?”
Trump had said following the initial ruling: “Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.”
Overreach of authority or activist judges?
In advance of this legal reverse ferret, the Trump Administration went into overdrive in opposition to the ruling from the Manhattan-based court.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday: “America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
On Wednesday, the court had ruled: “The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President … to regulate importation by means of tariffs.”
The original ruling from earlier in the week related to tariffs introduced as part of Trump’s notorious ‘Liberation Day’ suite of trade levies, which began with an eccentrically calculated menu of different national tariff levels, but ultimately flattened to a broadly uniform ten per cent.
While Trump’s approach to UK trade policy has been more consistent – at ten per cent – he wreaked uncertainty on European markets last week with the announcement that he was “recommending” 50 per cent tariffs on all EU imports into the US.
Meanwhile, the clock is continuing to tick down on 8 July, the date at which the 90-day pause on higher rates of tariffs is set to expire.