Role backwards or does everything stay as usual? A court decision in the United States raises questions about the effectiveness of tariffs on imported goods from abroad. US President Donald Trump wants to escalate the legal discussion – until the Supreme Court.
What did the judges decide?
The judges are less a thorn in the side, but rather the legal reasoning that the US president uses. He claims that there is an emergency – and therefore the application of a corresponding law from 1977 is justified. Trump refers to an imbalance in international trade at the expense of the United States and believes that the United States had been treated unfairly.
The law states that a president can issue decrees in the event of a crisis without the congress – the USA’s parliament must be called. In the event of far -reaching tariffs on import products and the emergency law used for this, the appellate court has now discussed such authority to the President – like the lower court. Tillers are a core competence of the US congress, the judges underlined.
Were the tariffs stopped with it?
Not for now. The decision does not come into force before October 14th – this gives the US government time to contest it in front of the Supreme Court. This is exactly what Trump wants to do now – in the hope that the judge’s team of the Supreme Courts, which has been right in his first term, will decide in his sense. He also hurried to face the impression of a defeat. Shortly after the decision, he wrote on his Truth Social platform: “All tariffs are still in force!”
In any case, the previous Federal Court decision was not all tariffs. Delivery on cars, steel, aluminum, medicinal products and semiconductors were decoupled.
What about Germany?
For most products that are introduced to the USA from Germany and other EU countries, a customs rate of 15 percent has been in place since August 7. This is the result of an agreement between Trump’s government and the EU that has been made after tough negotiations. It is unclear how exactly the judge’s decision could affect it.
Strictly speaking, the US court referred to an older stand in April. At that time, Trump had announced high tariffs on a huge table in the rose garden of the White House against a variety of countries. In the weeks and months afterwards, however, there were extensions of deadline, negotiations and letters from the White House – customs duties were partially lowered, and even further increased in the event of some countries. Trump continued to approach the alleged emergency as a basis for argument.
How does the EU react?
The EU Commission, which had negotiated the agreement of 15 percent, did not want to comment on the judgment at first. A spokesman emphasized on Saturday that the Commission would continue to work on the implementation of the agreements with the United States.
The EU Commission started the legislative process on Thursday to abolish tariffs to US industrial goods and to reduce barriers for the import of certain foods. In return, US tariffs are to be reduced to auto imports from Germany and other countries.
