President Trump Isn t a Tariff King – WSJ

The Trump tariffs have created enormous costs and uncertainty, but now we know they re illegal. As the three-judge panel explains in its detailed 52-page ruling, the President exceeded his emergency powers and bypassed discrete tariff authorities delegated to him by Congress. The ruling erases his April 2 tariffs as well as those on Canada and Mexico.

Small businesses and several states (V.O.S. Selections v. U.S.) challenged Mr. Trump s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs willy-nilly. That law gives the President broad authority in a national emergency to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat including to regulate the importation of foreign property.

After declaring fentanyl an emergency, the President in February slapped tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. Then in April he deemed the U.S. trade deficit an emergency and imposed tariffs of varying rates on the world. He later reduced those to 10% across the board for 90 days, supposedly to allow time to negotiate trade deals.

No other President has used IEEPA to impose tariffs. As the trade court explains, Richard Nixon used the law s precursor, the Trading With the Enemy Act, in 1971 to impose 10% tariffs for a short period to address a balance of payments problem. The Justice Department said Mr. Trump s tariffs are no different.

Not so. As the panel notes, Nixon tariffs were upheld by an appeals court because they were a limited surcharge and temporary measure calculated to help meet a particular national emergency, which is quite different from imposing whatever tariff rates he deems desirable. The latter is what Mr. Trump did, at one point jacking up rates to 145% on China.

via www.wsj.com

Well WSJ is right about this if you ask me. Trump isn’t king of tariffs much as he might like to be. And the “national emergency” rationale strikes me as a big stretch.