The federal court of appeals temporarily revived President Donald Trump’s tariffs the day after the trade court ruled that it had surpassed the authorities granted to the president (PDF).
Washington’s Federal Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a lower court decision on Thursday, but there was no reason for the decision.
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency motion from the Trump administration, claiming that the suspension is “important to the country’s national security.”
The White House praised the move.
“Even if you lose a customs case, you can still find another way,” said trade adviser Peter Navarro.
A shocking Wednesday ruling by the U.S. International Trade Court threatened to suspend or delay Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China in connection with his accusations that the three countries have promoted fentanyl flow to the United States.
The International Trade Court said tariffs issued under the International Emergency Economic Force Act (IEPA) were generally considered to be used to address the issue of national emergency situations rather than to address national debt.
Experts said the Ieepa, passed in 1977, is narrow in scope and targets gang activities that are fixed in certain countries, US-designated “terrorist organizations” or specific instances. For example, the United States used the law to seize property belonging to the Iranian government during the hostage crisis of 1979 and the property of Colombian drug traffickers in 1995.
“The International Emergency Economic Force Act of 1977 doesn’t say anything about tariffs,” Bruce Fein, former U.S. Assistant Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan, told Al Jazeera.
Fine added that there is a law that states that there is a Trade Expansion Act of 1962. However, he said that research by the Secretary of Commerce is required and can only be imposed on a product-by-product basis.
“All products”
Despite the appeals court resignation, Wednesday’s decision has been seen as a blow to the administration’s economic agenda that has previously led to a decline in consumer confidence and a loss of the US’s highest credit rating.
Experts believe that tariffs will not last in the end.
Posting on X, known as Twitter on Thursday, attorney Peter Harrell, a fellow at the Carnegie Fund for International Peace, said the Trade Court’s decision “is upheld, importers should ultimately be able to receive a refund.” [IEEPA] Customs taxes paid so far. But the government will probably try to avoid paying a refund until the appeal is exhausted. ”
“The power to determine the level of tariffs exists in Congress. Ieepa has not even mentioned raising tariffs, and it was actually passed to narrow the authority of the president. Now the president is using it to rewrite the tariff schedule around the world.”
The US Trade Court was used to justify tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles on tariffs introduced by other laws, such as the Trade Expansion Act.
Similar narrow tariffs, such as Chinese medicine, have additional targets. In April, the White House announced that the US Department of Commerce had launched an investigation to see whether relying on the US for active ingredients in key drugs poses a national security threat and guarantees tariffs.
“This is not a question of whether the president can impose tariffs,” said former Deputy Attorney General Fein. “He could do this after the research was conducted and then under the Act of 1962, showing that it was arbitrary and not a whimsical, produced by the country and not a national-by-country approach.”
“If he doesn’t like it, he can ask Congress to amend the law.”
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