The decision, delivered by a three-judge panel at the court, came after several lawsuits argued that Trump exceeded his legal powers and caused economic disruption by using emergency authority to shape US trade policy, global newswires reported.
The US Court of International Trade yesterday ruled that President Trump lacks the authority to impose, using emergency powers, broad tariffs on imports from nations that sell more to the US than they buy.
The court said the US constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate external commerce that is not overridden by the president’s emergency powers to safeguard the US economy.
Trump decision was based on his argument that US trade deficit constituted a national emergency. The United States has run a trade deficit for 49 years in a row.
He relied on the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify the tariffs, which targeted goods from several countries, including Canada, India, China and Mexico, and the European Union.
The move was necessary to combat illegal immigration and the flow of drugs into the United States, the Trump administration claimed.
The lawsuits, however, argued that the law does not permit the use of tariffs and that trade deficits do not meet the law’s requirement of an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’.
“The court holds, for the foregoing reasons, that IEEPA does not authorise any of the Worldwide, Retaliatory, or Trafficking Tariff Orders. The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs. The Trafficking Tariffs fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders,” the court stated.
The Trump administration says that the courts upheld the then-President Richard Nixon’s use of emergency tariffs in 1971 and argues that only Congress, not the courts, has the authority to decide whether a president’s emergency declaration meets legal standards.
The court said the US constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries that is not overridden by the president’s emergency powers to safeguard the US economy.
”The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President’s use of tariffs as leverage. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it,” the panel said in the decision.
The Trump administration has filed a notice of appeal.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
