US trade representative Jamieson Greer has warned that Washington will continue to hit its trading partners with tariffs even if some are ruled illegal by the Supreme Court later this year.
The US’s top court is set to hear cases brought by businesses challenging President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs in the first week of November.
Speaking in New York on Tuesday, Greer said the Trump administration expected to win the case, but would fall back on alternative legal measures to apply tariffs if it did not.
“We are very confident in the case,” Greer said. “We believe that the court will defer to the president on the emergency, the fact that tariffs can be used under this law.”
But Greer also insisted that tariffs would remain “a part of the policy landscape”, and said the so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed in August represented “how it’s going to be”.
“That’s how we need to think about trade going forward, win or lose at the Supreme Court, wherever we end up,” Greer said. “This is a structure.”
Greer declined to share specific details on the administration’s alternative plans to reimpose tariffs should the use of emergency powers be ruled illegal, but referred to other laws the US has previously used to apply duties.
These include Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which the Trump administration has already activated to apply levies to cars, steel, aluminium, copper and lumber.
The administration has ongoing probes into pharmaceuticals, chips, aerospace parts, drones, and other goods that could lead to further tariffs.
Greer said Trump’s current use of Section 232, which is not being challenged in the Supreme Court case, “covers a huge amount of trade in important, critical sectors”.
“We feel very confident that the president’s trade policy . . . will win at the court,” he added. “And if it doesn’t, we’ll be able to have the same effect.”
The November hearing comes after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last month upheld a lower court decision that found the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose global levies was illegal.
The White House asked the Supreme Court to hear the case on an expedited basis.
A Supreme Court rejection of the use of emergency laws underpinning Trump’s reciprocal tariffs would inject more uncertainty into US policy, following a turbulent six months for global trade.
Posted by jinhuiliuzhao
3 Comments
Well, this is a real pickle they’ve put us in.
democrats should do the same when there in office. just ignore scotus.
To be clear, it seems what Greer is saying that is if the IEEPA tariffs are struck down, the administration will seek to continue deploying tariffs under other means- namely Sections 301 and 232