A federal court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to issue a range of tariffs under an emergency powers statute, finding his orders exceeded the authority given to him by Congress.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 does not allow for “unbounded authority,” finding that the statute could not be used to impose “unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.”
The panel decided two challenges and described two types of tariffs: worldwide and retaliatory tariffs first announced in an executive order April 2 and trafficking tariffs put in place over numerous orders based on national emergencies.
“The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs,” the 49-page ruling states. “The Trafficking Tariffs fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders.”
Before the ruling, the worldwide tariffs remained in place at 10 percent for all countries, while country-specific higher rates are set to take effect on July 9, the ruling states. The trafficking tariffs were in place and set at 25 percent for Mexican and Canadian products and at 20 percent for Chinese products, the ruling states. The tariffs on Canadian energy and energy resources remained at the lower 10 percent rate, according to the ruling.
The trade court found that “an unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government.”
The ruling said the imposition of the worldwide and retaliatory tariffs address an imbalance in trade, which it called a “type of balance-of-payments deficit,” so it falls under narrower, non-emergency authorities.
In one lawsuit, a dozen states contended federal law normally limits the president’s ability to impose tariffs to cases where a country has specific tariffs of its own or is using policy to “dump” products in the American market.
The statute was never meant to be used for tariffs, the states argued. “Not once has any other President used IEEPA to impose tariffs,” the filing said.
The second case decided by the court was brought by a group of businesses harmed by the tariffs.
The emergency powers statute does not authorize the president to “unilaterally issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs,” the businesses argued in the lawsuit, and the president’s “claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination.”
The lawsuit described Trump’s actions as an “unprecedented power grab.”
The cases are State of Oregon et al. v. the Department of Homeland Security et al., and V.O.S. Selections et al. v. United States et al.
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