From Bloomberg:
President Donald Trump’s 10% global tariffs were declared unlawful by a federal trade court in a fresh blow to the administration’s economic agenda, several months after the US Supreme Court vacated earlier levies he’d imposed.
A divided three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan on Thursday granted a request by a group of small businesses and two dozen mostly Democrat-led states to vacate the tariffs. Trump imposed the 10% duties in February under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which had never previously been invoked.
The Administration is now going forward with Section 301 investigations involving 60 odd countries, involving alleged policies that create excess capacity, and the use of forced labor (Brookings assessment). Until those are implemented, it looks like the effective tariff rate is coming down (even if DoJ takes this to the Appeals Court).
Source: Pawel Skrzcpynski.
Pretty funny to have the judges call out the DOJ for ignorance in failing to know the difference between “balance of payments deficits” in Section 122 and “trade deficits” which is Trump’s bete noir.
These are Court of Trade judges who certainly know the difference but will the Supremes be that smart on appeal?