Trump tariffs remain valid for the time being – appeals court grants emergency motion
Washington. An appeals court has temporarily lifted a lower court's order blocking nearly all of US President Donald Trump's tariffs. The court is now reviewing the case, it stated in an order. The parties are invited to submit further statements, it added. The Trump administration had previously filed a legal challenge against the decision of the Court of International Trade in New York, which had declared nearly all of the Republican's tariffs illegal.
The New York court denied the Trump administration the authority to impose far-reaching tariffs under an emergency law. The court ordered that the tariffs in question be "repealed and their application permanently prohibited." The decision applied to almost all tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
It includes the punitive tariffs that the Republican imposed on what he called "Liberation Day" in early April. At the time, he ordered so-called reciprocal tariffs, which he justified with the trade deficit of each trading partner – but temporarily suspended them due to the downturn in the financial markets. At the same time, he imposed universal tariffs of 10 percent, affecting goods from almost all over the world. Certain tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China are also affected.
While the decision was a major setback for Trump's aggressive trade policy, the appeals court's order is now a first success for the US president—but not final. The legal dispute over it is likely to make its way through the courts. Nor is it the only ongoing legal dispute surrounding Trump's tariffs.
The White House reacted sharply to the initial decision. The judges of the trade court had "shamelessly abused their judicial power to usurp President Trump's decision-making authority," said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in the US capital, Washington. Trump's justification for imposing the high tariffs was "legally sound" and based on common sense, she claimed. The administration spokeswoman also expressed optimism about winning the case in court.
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