A US Court of Appeal comes to the conclusion that the punitive tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump are largely not legal.
• US Court of Appeal Tilts Trump’s tariffs
• Decision does not enter into force until October 14th
• Trump wants to move to the highest court
The aggressive trade policy of US President Trump receives a major damper: A court of appeal in the United States has recently judged that the president is not allowed to impose extensive tariffs on import products, referring to an emergency law. However, the decision will only come into force on October 14th. Until then, the US government has the opportunity to appeal before the Supreme Court. He immediately announced that Trump intends to do this. Via his short messages of Truth Social, he also wrote that all tariffs were still in force and called the decision “highly partisan”.
The latest judgment is already preceded by a legal discussion. A New York Federal Court of Trump’s tariffs had already lifted at the end of May and permanently prohibited a new imposition. The US government was then pulled before the Court of Appeal, which now largely confirmed the decision of the lower court. However, the blockade of the Federal Court in New York initially overturned it and also did not directly prohibit tariffs.
Both judgments refer to the country -specific tariffs that Trumps had announced for dozens of trading partners in the United States for the first time in early April this year. Afterwards, the US government had repeatedly granted deadlines in order to be able to carry out negotiations with the countries. As a result, some customs sets had also changed. A dozen US states originally sued before the US Federal Court. In their complaint, they referred to the fact that power, tariffs and levies would be levied by constitution at the US Congress and not with the US president.
How Trump justifies his aggressive customs policy
Trump justifies his radical customs policy with alleged trade deficits that were a national security risk for the United States – that’s why there is a national emergency that justifies the tariff.
Customs usually have to be approved by the US Parliament. However, Trump argued that trade deficits with other countries were a national security risk and that there was a national emergency. With this reason, he imposed the tariff – the parliament was surrounded.
Redaktion finanzen.net / dpa-afx