US president Donald Trump has said the administration will impose an immediate 10 per cent global tariff, “over and above normal tariffs already being charged”.
The announcement came as part of his seething rebuke to three conservative members of the US supreme court following Friday’s ruling striking down his sweeping use of tariffs. At a hastily convened briefing, Trump described the ruling as “deeply disappointing” and said he was “ashamed of certain members of the court for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country”.
“Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic and they are dancing in the streets. But they won’t be dancing for long,” Trump said, arguing that despite the supreme court decision in relation to the administration’s interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the ruling makes clear that other “methods, practices, statutes and authorities that are even stronger than the IEEPA tariffs” remain at his disposal.
Trump cited section 122, referring to the Trade Act of 1974, which permits a president to address “large and serious” balance-of-trade issues. The president described the groups that took the legal challenge as “major sleazebags.”
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Trump had contended that a drug influx through the porous southern border and the “hollowing out” of the US manufacturing base caused by trade deficits constituted a national emergency and so invoked his authority under the IEEPA Act to respond.
Chief justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, noted that “when Congress has delegated its tariff powers, it has done so in explicit terms and subject to strict limits” and found that the Trump administration’s interpretation “would represent a transformative expansion of the president’s authority over tariff policy”. Trump’s supreme court appointees Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett found with the majority ruling.
Trump was taking charge of a governor’s breakfast meeting in the White House on Friday morning when he learned of the six-three decision. It was reported by several outlets that he became enraged, called the decision a “disgrace”, referring to “these f***ing courts”. Tariffs have formed the kernel of Trump’s domestic economic agenda and served as a volatile weapon used to force the administration’s preferred foreign policy agenda. Just last month, he threatened tariffs on eight European Union nations as he pressed for US control of Greenland. On Thursday, he again referred to tariffs as his favourite word during a speech at a steel plant in Georgia designed to showcase the effectiveness of the policy.
However, Trump’s insistence that tariffs are reviving US manufacturing stands in stark odds with Census Bureau data showing that the US goods and services trade deficit shrunk marginally and remains at a historic high of $901 billion, while some 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since he returned to office.
Although it is a humiliating rebuff, the decision will not have come as entirely as a surprise to the White House. Just last month, trade representative Jamieson Greer noted that Trump had alternative routes to use in exercising tariffs, including section 301, to combat unfair trade practices which was used against China in Trump’s first term. Supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, who with justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented in the ruling, stated in his dissent that the decision would generate many practical consequences, including the issue of refunds for the estimated $175 billion collected in tariffs.
Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said the Government was “closely monitoring the situation”, noting prior to Trump’s 10 per cent announcement that the imposition of tariffs “by some other means, for instance via some alternative legal basis, cannot be ruled out”.
The 10 per cent global tariff is due to come into effect “in three days” according to Trump.
