A panel of federal judges in New York has blocked President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, reported the New York Times. The judges found that “federal law did not grant him ‘unbounded authority’ to tax imports from nearly every country around the world.”
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that Trump “overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and justify the sweeping tariffs,” wrote the Associated Press. The tariffs are reportedly being challenged in at least seven lawsuits. In the ruling Wednesday, the trade court combined two of those cases—one filed by five small businesses and another by 12 U.S. states.
“Anybody that has had to pay tariffs so far will be able to get them refunded,” said Ilya Somin, a professor of law at George Mason University.
The court’s ruling nullified Trump’s executive orders imposing 25% duties on Canadian and Mexican products and a 20% tariff on Chinese products. It also “struck down a 10% tariff imposed on all U.S. trading partners to address trade deficits, as well as Trump’s paused reciprocal’ tariffs of between 20% and 50% on 60-odd trading partners, which are now scheduled to go into effect on July 9 if foreign governments can’t reach a deal with the White House before then,” wrote Politico.
According to AP, however, the ruling does leave in place other Trump tariffs, including those on foreign steel, aluminum and automotives. However, those tariffs were brought about through a different law that required a Commerce Department investigation and could not be imposed at the president’s own discretion.
“The unanimity of Wednesday’s decision by the International Trade Court was unexpected though this is likely not the last word on the President’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on our trade partners. We expect the Administration to appeal this decision in the near future. In the meantime, the NACS GR team will continue to be in touch with the Administration and with Congress to monitor developments and tell the story of tariff impacts on our industry,” said Jon Taets, director, government relations at NACS.
It was not clear precisely when and how the tariff collections would stop, reported the NYT. The ruling gave the executive branch up to 10 days to complete the bureaucratic process of ending them.
The Trump administration immediately filed its plans to appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. According to AP, the U.S. Court of International Trade has jurisdiction over civil cases involving trade. The court’s decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. and ultimately to the Supreme Court, where the legal challenges to Trump’s tariffs are expected to end up.