"Tariffs on Steroids: Trump's New Trade Weapon Raises Alarms In a move that echoes the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly seeking to impose tariffs on foreign exports to the United States. This development comes after a February Supreme Court ruling struck down tariffs imposed on nearly all of America's trading partners, citing the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) as an unconstitutional basis for the tariffs. As policy experts speculate on the new legal justification Trump's team will use, concerns are growing about the potential for a trade war and the devastating consequences it could have on the global economy. With the president's penchant for using tariffs as a tool for punitive measures, the implications of this move are far-reaching and alarming."
The president’s minions have trawled the statutes to restore roadblocks to trade. The invocation of Smoot-Hawley looks especially dangerousDonald Trump may have found the killer weapon to punish countries at will: by imposing tariffs on their exports to the United States.The president has been looking for a new tool since February, when the supreme court struck down tariffs he slapped on virtually all of America’s trading partners based on the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, on the spurious grounds that the US faced a variety of national emergencies. It’s become a parlor game among policy wonks to predict what new legal justification he would deploy to replace them.Eduardo Porter is a journalist focused on economics and politics. He writes the newsletter Being There on Substack Continue reading...
