Trade Court Voids Trump’s ‘Reciprocal’ Tariffs

A federal U.S. court late Wednesday struck down the “reciprocal” tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on the country’s trading partners in early April, saying he had overstepped his authority.

“The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (“IEEPA”) delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country,” a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade wrote in its ruling. “The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder.”

The court said that Congress is typically responsible for imposing these levies and not the president alone.

The ruling also stopped Trump from enforcing the tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China that were aimed at combating fentanyl entering the U.S. The ruling said that “trafficking tariffs” of 25% imposed on products from Canada and Mexico, and 20% on those from China, “fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those Orders.” The panel said those tariff orders would be “permanently” stopped.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but immediately appealed the ruling, per reports.  The steel and aluminum tariffs Trump imposed in March weren’t mentioned in the ruling.

U.S. stock futures surged on the news, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq pointing nearly 2% higher.