President Donald Trump’s trade war could come to an abrupt halt this month — even without concessions from dozens of trading partners.
It’s up to the U.S. Court of International Trade, an obscure, New York-based federal court that decides cases related to trade and customs law. The court is hearing oral arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping new tariffs last month, before suspending the highest ones on about 60 trading partners for 90 days. If the court grants the plaintiffs’ request for an emergency injunction it could upend the trade negotiations the Trump administration is now racing to complete with dozens of countries.
Trump’s new measures include a 10 percent baseline tariff on imports from around the world, additional tariffs ranging up to 50 percent on a long list of trading partners (which he has since paused) and a sky-high tariff of 145 percent on China, which the administration just announced plans to lower to a still-substantial 30 percent.
The president and his top economic officials have justified those duties by arguing the country’s soaring trade deficit with the rest of the world amounts to “a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life.” The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined Monday to comment on the litigation.
