Trump tariffs live updates: US court blocks global levies after US president ‘exceeded his authority’ – UK Times

A White House spokesperson, Kush Desai, savaged the ruling in a statement in which he claimed that the court had not disputed the fact that “foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the United States” had “ fuelled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits”.

He said that had in turn “created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base.”

It’s not for “unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency.

“President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness,” he said.

The court noted that Trump’s tariffs exceed the authority Congress granted to presidents under his cited International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law which lays out how the executive can impose import taxes in limited circumstances pursuant to a national emergency.

The judges said Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, which set a 10 per cent baseline tax on all imports and even higher taxes on imports from nearly every one of America’s trading partners, “exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs.”

They also rejected Trump’s use of the emergency powers to tax Mexican, Canadian and Chinese imports because those tariffs don’t specifically “deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared,” as required by law.

The court rejected the Trump administration’s arguments that claimed the president had broad authority in the current situation to impose tariffs under his emergency powers.

“An unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government,” the judges noted, noting that “any interpretation of IEEPA that delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional.”

A federal trade court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law.

The ruling from a three-judge panel came after several lawsuits arguing Trump has exceeded his authority, left U.S. trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos.

Tariffs must typically be approved by Congress, but Trump has says he has the power to act because the country’s trade deficits amount to a national emergency.

He imposed tariffs on most of the countries in the world at one point, sending markets reeling.

In an unsigned opinion released Wednesday, the judges ruled the tariffs will be “vacated,” and they “permanently enjoined” the government from enforcing them.