A federal appeals court has removed a hold on President Trump pursuing his sweeping tariff policy, a day after a trade court had blocked the White House from using 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose levies on imports from around the world.
The administration had immediately filed an appeal on Wednesday when the U.S. Court of International Trade declared that Trump exceeded his authority to impose tariff on nearly all trade partners.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted an emergency motion from the Trump administration, which gives Administration a temporary permission to continue with its trade measures.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade has ruled that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not invest President Donald Trump with the authority to impose a broad range of tariffs on imports.
“The President’s assertion of tariff-making authority in the instant case, unbounded as it is by any limitation in duration or scope, exceeds any tariff authority delegated to the President under IEEPA,” a panel of three judges ruled.
“The Worldwide and Retaliatory tariffs are thus ultra vires and contrary to law,” judges on the panel of the New York-based court wrote in their verdict Wednesday in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of small business owners.
The White House has appealed against the ruling right away and officials say it is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency.
Since the start of his second term, President Trump has said his economic policy seeks to fix the unfair trade practices, saying the international partners have exploited the trade concessions that have devastated local manufacturing and economic wellbeing of Americans.
He marked the trade tariff announced as Liberation Day.
Spokesperson Kush Desai argued that the president should be able to use “every lever of executive power to address this crisis.”
Echoing Trump’s policy argument, spokesperson Desai noted that the international trade deficits amount impacting the United States make the issue a national emergency “that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base — facts that the court did not dispute.”
As part of his policy, Trump has also urged American and foreign companies to invest in the United States, especially in the manufacturing field.
Trump has imposed 10% tariff on imports from all trading countries. He also introduced reciprocal tariffs on countries including China.
The president has paused some of the tariffs to give space to negotiations but the use of tariff as an economic policy tool has rattled U.S. and international stock markets.
