(Washington D.C.) President Donald Trump’s global tariffs can remain in place while the courts examine whether the sweeping import taxes that have roiled worldwide trade reach beyond his presidential authority.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit delivered the order swiftly Thursday, handing Trump a win after a lower trade court blocked nearly all of the president’s unprecedented emergency tariffs that affect U.S. trade with nearly every other nation.
The administration had immediately appealed the ruling and threatened to take the case to the Supreme Court as early as Friday if a stay was not granted.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the earlier decision Thursday, saying the three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of International Trade “brazenly abused their judicial power.”
“Our trade agenda is moving forward, and we’ve already heard from countries around the world today who will continue to negotiate in good faith with the United States so we can cut good trade deals on behalf of the American people, and we fully expect to win this case in court,” Leavitt said at the daily press briefing.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney took to social media Thursday to say that his country “welcomes” the U.S. trade court’s decision.
“It confirmed what we’ve always held: that the American tariffs against Canadian goods are unlawful and unjustified,” Carney wrote on X.
The U.S. Court of International Trade had sided Wednesday with several businesses and a dozen states that sued the administration for using emergency powers to trigger the steep import taxes — the first time a U.S. president had ever done so.
Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon were among states, led by Democratic attorneys general, that brought the suit.
The trade court’s ruling did not apply to tariffs Trump imposed under other statutes, including national security-related duties on foreign automobiles, as well as steel and aluminum. Some of the steel tariffs, imposed during Trump’s first term, were left in place under former President Joe Biden.
Tariffs are taxes paid to the U.S. government by American companies and purchasers who want to bring imported products into the country.
Trump began issuing emergency tariffs in February and March on products from Canada, Mexico and China, declaring national emergencies with respect to fentanyl smuggling from all three nations.
The president escalated his trade policy on April 2, which he dubbed “liberation day,” when he announced tariffs on nearly every other nation after declaring a national emergency under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Trump slapped some of the highest levies on countries that export more products to the U.S. than they buy in American goods.
The announcement sent world markets plummeting and small businesses panicking, and ignited a trade war with China, peaking at a 145% tariff on Chinese goods.
Trump paused his worldwide “reciprocal” tariffs until July 9, imposing a universal 10% import tax on every country while he said his administration negotiates new trade agreements — usually a lengthy, meticulous process.
Trump lowered import taxes on Chinese goods to an effective baseline of 30% in mid-May to allow for three months of negotiations, according to the administration.
Judges’ conclusions
The trade court judges found that trade deficits — meaning we buy more from a country than they buy from us — do not constitute an emergency under the law and do not give the president unfettered power to impose unlimited tariffs.
“Because of the Constitution’s express allocation of the tariff power to Congress, we do not read IEEPA to delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the President,” according to the court’s 61-page opinion.
In its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Trump administration argued IEEPA “clearly authorizes” the president to impose the tariffs.
“Absent at least interim relief from this Court, the United States plans to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court tomorrow to avoid the irreparable national-security and economic harms at stake,” the administration wrote.
Separately, Judge Rudolph Contreras for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., delivered a similar, but narrow, ruling Thursday for two businesses that sued the Trump administration. Contreras wrote in a 33-page opinion that the businesses faced “significant and unrecoverable” financial losses as a result of the import taxes.
