The US Court of International Trade has rejected several of President Trump's tariff policies — particularly his sweeping import taxes against Canada, Mexico, and China — identifying them as illegal and putting a pause on them.
Yahoo Finance Washington correspondent Ben Werschkul comes on Market Domination to explain the course of action Trump officials could take to contest this federal court ruling or reimplement certain tariffs.
Also catch Greta Peisch, the former general counsel for the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) under the Biden administration, also weigh in on the workarounds the Trump administration could pursue as it appeals this ruling.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here.
Well, markets are reacting to that new twist in the tariff saga. A federal court blocking President Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency powers law. That move rattled global financial markets, confused trade partners, raised broader fears about inflation and a possible recession. The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based US Court of International Trade coming after several lawsuits arguing Trump's liberation day tariffs exceeded his authority and left the country's trade policy dependent on his changing orders. The White House is appealing the ruling. We're joined now by our Washington correspondent Ben Worshkol. So, Ben, there's a lot to impact, unpack. What is the latest about what happens now?
Yeah, so what I've been looking at today is sort of what what are the next steps for Trump as as he's trying to do this, and what the White House is saying is it's kind of a two-pronged approach. The first prong is to contest this bill, or to contest this ruling. Um, they're they've they they've issued two quick motions last evening, and then another one today basically to push back on implementation of a ban on these tariffs, reverse it completely, and also get it to the Supreme Court, perhaps as early as this week. So, they're really aggressive in that front. The second front is exploring legal other routes to get to the same tariffs through different routes, which the White House is confirmed they're also exploring. Um, part of the rationale of this decision last night was that Trump has the authority to do a lot of these actions he's done using emergency authority through other things. And this is true because Congress has given the president a wide different array array of authorities to do it. One intriguing scenario here, if these appeals fail, is that Trump could move on a different quick strike action, called Section 122, to essentially re-implement the tariffs quickly, but only for 150 days and then pursue a separate authority that could allow him to get a lot of them in place permanently. So, it's a that's a multi-step process that has a lot of legal trip wires with it, but it's in it's one that's not likely to provide a lot of certainty for for Congress for certain.
Ben, you mentioned Congress there. Do you, is it possible Congress would ever step in and give Trump this authority? I mean, could they do that? Would they do that?
Um, well, they have given over basically almost almost total authority to the president over over decades. Now, the question, I think, is is whether they would come in to sort of take back some of the authority. Interestingly, this quick strike option, this Section 122, does have a bigger role for Congress. Basically, the president can implement it, but there's a limit on how high and for how long unless Congress unless Congress extends it. So, he could, he could be going to Congress to ask him to to keep these tariffs in place for longer. There's that, but definitely been a lot of calls in the last 24 hours from lawmakers who are opposed to this for Congress to take back their authority. They could always pass a law that says, "No, we're in charge of tariffs." But that that's a hard lift, especially with Congress so unloyal to the president, with these Republicans in charge.
All right, Ben. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
