Trump Vows New 10% Tariffs After Supreme Court Loss
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
New economic data show that growth slowed and inflation rose at the end of last year. Plus, the Supreme Court rules that President Trump's global tariffs are illegal. President Trump responds with more tariffs.
Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected. We have alternatives. Great alternatives. Could be more money. We'll take in more money.
What did the Supreme Court rule about Trump's tariffs?
And we'll be a lot stronger for it.
And meet the Republican congresswoman pushing back on Trump's immigration policies. It's Friday, February 20th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the p.m.
How did Trump respond to the Supreme Court ruling on tariffs?
edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that President Trump's tariffs are illegal. In its 6-3 decision, the justices found that the president went too far in enacting his most sweeping tariffs without clear authorization from Congress, the first time the Supreme Court has definitively struck down one of Trump's second-term policies. For more on the implications of the ruling, I'm joined now by WSJ economic policy reporter Gavin Bade. Gavin, the case involved two categories of tariffs, one that Trump imposed on pretty much every country in the world, ostensibly to repair trade deficits, and the other on Mexico, Canada and China connected to fentanyl.
Are there tariffs that aren't affected by this ruling?
Yes.
What alternatives to the struck-down tariffs is Trump considering?
Notably, Trump's tariffs on individual industries. Those are like the tariffs on steel and aluminum, on cars and car parts, on trucks, on copper, on lumber. Those are under a different legal authority, completely unrelated to this case. Those remain in place.
Did the ruling say what happens to the tariffs that companies have already paid?
No, it did not. And that is a big point of contention here. You have over a thousand companies that have already filed in court saying, we want refunds if these tariffs are struck down. The Supreme Court did not weigh in to say what happens. This means that it will probably be litigated in lower courts. And the president said at a press conference that you'll probably be in court for five years sorting this out. So whether or not that means that they're going to fight this tooth and nail for that long, I am not sure, but there's no easy resolution to the refunds issue, at least in the short term.
Speaking of that press conference, another thing that came out of it was that President Trump announced new tariffs, including a 10 percent global tariff with a different legal basis. Do we at this point expect those to stand?
At this point, I think those tariffs, the new ones he announced, are more legally defensible than the ones that were struck down. So he announced there's two sets of tariffs that he's talking about. The first one, it's under what's called Section 122. And this allows the president to impose tariffs for up to 150 days. It's very time limited. He said we will impose a 10% tariff across the globe. So kind of reinstituting his global minimum tariff that he had done under IEP. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act. So that tariff authority will act as a stopgap while they get other tariffs ready. And those other tariffs will come under what's called Section 301 of the Trade Act. That is also a very legally defensible option.
There are many tariffs already on the books under Section 301. It's also what Trump used in his first term for tariffs on China. But the whole thing is you have to do an investigation. You have to gather evidence. You have to write a report. So that all takes time. Trump wants to do these things immediately. So he has this kind of one-two step. Okay, we've got our temporary tariffs, and then we will come back and have the longer-lasting ones later.
How does this really affect how companies will operate in this tariff environment?
I don't think it'll affect a lot in the short term, right? No one's going to make major investment decisions or maybe even shipping decisions based on this. There's still a lot of work to be done here and a lot of open questions as to how they will try to reconstitute this tariff regime.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:27
2
What did the Supreme Court rule about Trump's tariffs?
0:27–0:39
3
How did Trump respond to the Supreme Court ruling on tariffs?
0:39–1:25
4
What alternatives to the struck-down tariffs is Trump considering?
1:25–4:46
5
Which tariffs remain unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling?
4:46–7:40
6
What are the implications for companies regarding tariffs already paid?
7:40–11:02
7
What new tariffs did Trump announce after the Supreme Court decision?
11:02–11:44
Speakers
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