“The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, passed in 1977, grants the president broad authority over economic transactions, and a wide range of abilities to deal with \u201cany unusual and extraordinary threat,\u201d stemming in whole or in part from foreign sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presidents, including Trump\u2019s predecessor Joe Biden, have used the law to impose economic sanctions on other countries, including on Russia after it launched its 2022 war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the closest a president has come to citing a national emergency to impose tariffs was when President Richard Nixon used a different law \u2014 the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 \u2014 to levy a temporary universal tariff on all imports in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump justified his new tariffs Saturday by pointing to \u201cthe major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl,\u201d which he claims Mexico, Canada and China are not doing enough to keep from coming into the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Bill Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump\u2019s use of IEEPA to justify his trade actions \u201cdoesn\u2019t really pass the red-face test,\u201d setting the stage for a company or trade association whose members have been harmed by the action to sue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe question will be, can you find a judge who will write an injunction to stay the tariffs from going into effect,\u201d Reinsch said. \u201cAnd my prediction is that will be hard, because you\u2019re asking a federal judge to essentially say, \u2018I know more than the President does about what an emergency is.\u2019 And I think judges are going to be reluctant to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That won\u2019t stop a lawsuit from proceeding, most likely all the way to the Supreme Court, Reinsch said, but it could be years before there is a conclusion to the legal battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe courts have historically upheld the president\u2019s power to take emergency actions, especially when they are related to national security. But one important question is whether they will uphold the use of tariffs. In the past, [IEEPA] has only been used to impose sanctions,\u201d said Tim Brightbill, a trade attorney at the law firm Wiley Rein in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile it is possible that companies or industry groups would seek an injunction, they probably face an uphill battle blocking the new tariffs,\u201d Brightbill said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“the U.S. effectively killed the WTO Appellate Body during Trump\u2019s first term by blocking the appointment of new judges, leaving it without the ability to adjudicate disputes. And there\u2019s little to suggest the Trump administration would abide by a WTO ruling even if the organization were able to issue one.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n