The federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed President Trump to maintain many of the tariffs on China and other US trading partners, and allowed him to extend the suspension allowed in late May shortly after another panel of judges ruled that import taxes were illegal.
The decision had warned Washington's Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that a critical but interim victory for the Trump administration, and that a sudden interruption of duties could undermine the president at talks around the world.
However, the government must convince the judge that the president properly used a series of emergency powers when introducing the centre of his economic agenda earlier this year. The Trump administration has already shown that it is willing to fight that fight to the Supreme Court.
The ruling came shortly after by US negotiators, and China agreed to a framework aimed at extending the trade ceasefire between the two superpowers. The Trump administration warned that if the appeal courts did not grant a more complete stay, those consultations and others would have been at risk while the appeals courts continued their debate.
At the heart of the legal battle was Trump's novel interpretation of law in the 1970s, where he was fighting a world trade war on a vast scale. His previous president never used the international emergency economic force law, or Ieepa, to impose tariffs.
But the law forms the basis of Trump's campaign to reorient the global economic order. He aims to avoid Congress, impose large taxes on most global imports, raise revenue, strengthen domestic manufacturing, and mediate more favorable trade transactions with other countries.
A coalition of small and medium-sized businesses and states in April sued the Trump administration in the US International Trade Court, claiming that they faced economic hardships due to the president's illegal activities. The Trade Court found that Trump had far surpassed the boundaries of the emergency law late last month.
The judge ordered the White House to stop many of its tariffs, including those imposed on China, Canada and Mexico. However, the Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling, and the appeals court judge initially granted the government a temporary stay. That allowed the president's tariffs to remain, but the court weighed a long-term suspension.
It granted the extension Tuesday, with the court recognizing next to the legal debate at the heart of the case and the extent to which Trump has the drastic trade force he claims.
“The Federal Circuit is disappointed that it has allowed us to temporarily maintain illegal tariffs,” said Jeffrey Schwab, senior adviser at the Liberty Judicial Center, representing a group of small and medium-sized businesses that sued the administration.
He said in a statement that the court assessing the merits of the case “has found these tariffs to be illegal,” adding, “the court also believes what is obvious as a day. Ieepa will not allow the president to impose any tax he likes when he wishes.”
