The court ruled just weeks before Trump’s coming trip to China, where he hopes to maintain a delicate trade truce with the world’s second-biggest economy.
Global trade has been upended again after the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, with U.S. trading partners and businesses around the world grasping to understand the system that replaces them.
A new flat global tariff of 10% paid by U.S. importers took effect Tuesday, lower than the 15% that Trump said he would implement days before. Under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, the 10% tariff can remain in place for 150 days without congressional approval.
China is the “biggest winner” from the Supreme Court ruling, with an effective U.S. tariff rate now much closer to that of other countries, said Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis.
Phrasing this as “from Supreme Court’s tariff ruling” is a hell of a choice given that Trump’s decision to enact these tariffs was always blatantly and egregiously illegal and there was never any doubt about that.
Given the current USSC’s track record of just blatantly inventing law, I think it’s really worth noting that in this case their decision was blindingly obvious and the only reason there was ever any doubt was because of the possibility that they might just decide to throw out all legal precedent and invent some bullshit. Otherwise, it would never even have been a question how they were going to rule on this one. The administration’s arguments for their case amounted to diddly and squat.