The punitive tariffs that Trump had imposed in several steps against numerous states from the beginning of April are affected by the judge’s decision – and which are generally applied to any kind of imported goods. The judgment of the Court of Appeal does not apply to industry-specific tariffs such as the surcharges on aluminum, steel and auto imports.
The judges at the federal court in the capital Washington, who is responsible for trade issues, confirmed the illegality of the tariffs imposed by Trump with seven to four votes.
In this way, they confirmed a first instance decision by the Federal Court in Washington responsible for foreign trade. This also argued that Trump had exceeded his responsibility with the “unlimited surcharge on goods from practically every country” that the parliament was responsible for foreign trade. The Trump government appealed against this decision, whereupon the tariffs were temporarily put back into force in the urgent procedure.
Trump had rely on an emergency law from 1977 when imposing the tariffs. The Court of Appeal has now stated that this law gave the US President “far-reaching powers” in order to react to a “declared national emergency”. However, these did not expressly contain the authorization to “raise tariffs, taxes or the like”.
The US President criticized the judgment in his online service Truth Social and pointed out that the tariffs remained in force at first. He accused the federal judges an “extremely partisan decision”. However, they knew that “the United States will end up in the end,” added Trump.
Trump also indicated that he would bring the case to the final clarification in front of the Supreme Court. Justice Minister Pam Bondi later confirmed this in the online service X. Your authority will appeal to “restore the lawful authority of the president,” said Bondi.
A judgment on the lifting of the tariffs would be a hard blow for the president. On the one hand, Trump had achieved with the tariffs that several states and, among other things, the EU trade agreement concluded with the US and opened its markets more for US products. On the other hand, the President uses the tariff as a political means of pressure.
At the beginning of August, Trump said that he feared “enormous compensation payments” in the event that the tariffs were finally declared illegally. In this case, the trade agreements concluded during the customs dispute could also wiggle.
A few hours before the publication of the court decision, US trade minister Howard Lutnick warned in an input to the judges to declare the tariffs illegally “would endanger the strategic interests of the United States at home and abroad and probably lead to retaliation and to terminate agreed agreements by foreign trading partners”.
The democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, one of Trump’s most prominent rivals, reacted with ridicule to the court decision. Trump is “the largest loser in the United States,” wrote Newsom. However, he regards that the US citizens are the victims of his “failed economic policy”.
