Last week a United States of America Appeals Court ruled that not all of President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs were legal. The court handed down judgment that while the President of the US has wide ranging powers in terms of a law from 1977, unilaterally imposing certain tariffs does not fall into one of those powers.
Simultaneously, the Court has given the Trump administration until early October this year to file an appeal – should it wish to – with the Supreme Court. Until then, the tariffs will remain in place. Addressing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or IEEPA – which Trump used to enact the tariffs – the court said, inter alia: “It seems unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting IEEPA, to depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs. The statute neither mentions tariffs (or any of its synonyms) nor has procedural safeguards that contain clear limits on the President’s power to impose tariffs.”
