US Court of International Trade blocks Trump from imposing global tariffs
Ruling prevents president from enforcing previous tariffs against China, Mexico and Canada
HOUSTON, United States
The US Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority and blocked him from imposing sweeping global tariffs on imports, according to media reports.
The three-judge panel ruled in favor of a permanent injunction to Trump's Liberation Day tariffs, which he implemented on April 2 without Congressional approval by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Trump cited the IEEPA when he initiated the steep tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, saying his decision was designed to target fentanyl trafficking into the United States.
The judge, however, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs' argument that the IEEPA did not give the president the power to enact tariffs in the first place, and even if it was interpreted to, it "would be an unconstitutional delegation of Congress’s power to impose tariffs."
The order halts Trump’s 30% tariffs on China, 25% tariffs on some goods imported from Mexico and Canada, and the 10% universal tariffs on most goods coming into the US.
The ruling does not affect the 25% tariffs on autos, auto parts, steel or aluminum, which were subject to a different law (Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act) that Trump cited for those tariffs.
The lawsuit was initiated in April by the libertarian legal advocacy group Liberty Justice Center, which represents wine-seller VOS Selections and four other small businesses that claimed they had been severely harmed by the tariffs.
"We won – the state of Oregon and state plaintiffs also won," the plaintiff's lawyer, Ilya Somin, told CNN after the ruling. "The opinion rules that the entire system of liberation day and other IEEPA tariffs is illegal and barred by permanent injunction."
