President Donald Trump’s recent 10% acrossthe- board tariffs have been ruled illegal by a federal court, a second blow to the Trump administration after an earlier ruling that rendered its sweeping levies illegal.
The US Court of International Trade, in a 2-1 ruling, found the administration lacked the justification to enact tariffs under a 1974 trade law known as Section 122 and ordered it to cease collecting these tariffs from the plaintiffs and refund prior payments. The judges found the administration’s argument for the tariffs insufficient.
At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs that were imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on earth. The new tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, were set to expire July 24.
Meanwhile, the tariffs can continue to remain in place for all other importers besides the plaintiffs through July, though more lawsuits are expected.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is looking into whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage.
It is also investigating whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.