Trump is determined to pursue his trade war – and he may be difficult to stop
📰 source: theguardian_business · 📚 research
trump is determined to keep fighting his trade war, and he may have found a nearly unstoppable legal weapon. in february the supreme court struck down his use of the international economic emergency powers act to tariff virtually all trading partners. since then he has turned to other statutes, most dangerously section 338 of the smoot-hawley tariff act of 1930, which he used to impose a 50% tariff on canada.
section 338 lets the president retaliate against any country that puts the us 'at a disadvantage compared with the commerce of any foreign country', under hazy arguments. it was never used to impose tariffs until now. trump has also tried section 301 tariffs on everyone claiming forced labor, and a 10% tariff on all countries under section 122 of the 1974 trade act, citing balance of payments crises that no longer exist. that authority ran out after 150 days.
the supreme court's february ruling was 6-3, with two trump appointees in the majority, but it only rejected the use of ieepa for taxes. with statutes like section 338 still on the books, trump's lawyers have plenty of room to keep punishing countries.
why it matters: if courts let trump use section 338, he gets near-blanket power to tariff any country, making the trade war hard to stop.
source: theguardian_business
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