A US federal court on Thursday struck down the 10 percent global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed earlier this year after a Supreme Court loss, ruling them unlawful and unauthorised by statute.
A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found 2-1 that Trump exceeded the tariff power Congress had delegated to the president when he invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose the duties. The tariffs are “invalid” and “unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote. The dissenting judge held that the law allowed the president more leeway.
The ruling directly applies only to the three plaintiffs — the state of Washington, spice company Burlap & Barrel and toy company Basic Fun! — that brought the case after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit IEEPA tariffs Trump had imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. “It’s not clear” whether other businesses would have to keep paying the tariffs, Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center said. “We fought back today and we won, and we’re extremely excited,” Basic Fun! CEO Jay Foreman said. The temporary 10 percent tariffs were already due to expire on 24 July.
The administration is expected to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, with the Supreme Court a possible final stop. Trump is also pursuing two replacement investigations through the Office of the US Trade Representative — one looking at whether 16 trading partners are overproducing goods, and another covering 60 economies on forced-labour standards — that could produce new tariffs on different legal grounds.
For Sri Lankan exporters, who have been paying the 10 percent global rate on top of country-specific tariffs, the decision is a potential opening: a successful appeal upholding it could force refunds, while the IMF has separately flagged the dual tariff and Hormuz shock as the binding constraint on this year’s growth.
Source: Ada Derana.
