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Trump administration may add temporary tariffs of up to 15% using existing law: Report
The Trump administration is thinking about temporarily adding tariffs of up to 15% on many foreign goods, using a law that allows such measures for 150 days.
The Trump administration is thinking about putting temporary tariffs on many goods from around the world, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The report says the US government may use an existing law that allows tariffs of up to 15% for a period of 150 days.
People familiar with the matter told WSJ that no final decision has been made yet.
The Donald Trump administration began considering a "Plan B" after its tariff strategy was “undermined” when a trade court blocked the tariffs, ruling that Trump had overstepped his authority.
Trump seeks ‘stopgap' measure after tariff setback
“The administration is considering a stopgap effort to impose tariffs on swaths of the global economy under a never-before-used provision of the Trade Act of 1974," according to the WSJ report,
The act permits imposing tariffs of up to 15% for a duration of 150 days as a measure to tackle trade imbalances with other nations.
The move aims to buy more time for Trump to create specific tariffs for each vital trading partner. He could do this using another part of the same law, which is meant to stop unfair trade actions by other countries.
However, the government may also wait before moving forward, as a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily brought back some of the biggest tariffs put in place by the Republican President.
Replying to a reporter's query, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the administration is considering alternative ways to impose tariffs while appealing the court decisions, WSJ reported.
The report indicated that the US might broaden its use of tariffs by relying more on national security justifications.
Peter Navarro, senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, appeared on Bloomberg TV and suggested that the administration could use the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which has a provision that allows for tariffs on nations that discriminate against America.
What the trade court ruling says
A three-judge panel at the New York-based Court of International Trade on Wednesday ruled that President Trump did not have the legal authority to make such wide-ranging tariff changes on his own.
“An unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government,” the judges wrote in their decision.
The court added that Congress never granted the president unlimited power to increase tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), the law Trump cited to justify his actions.
However, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stayed the previous day’s federal trade court decision, stating that stopping the tariffs would be “critical for the country’s national security.”
