President Trump said in a press briefing on Friday that his administration will be placing a “10% global tariff … over and above the normal tariffs already being charged” now that the Supreme Court has struck down his wide-sweeping tariff regime.
In a 6-3 vote on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give the president the authority to levy tariffs, dealing a blow to the Trump Administration’s signature economic policy.
The high court’s ruling, Trump said at the briefing, was “deeply disappointing.” The president also said “foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic.”
“I’m allowed to cut off any and all trade …. I can embargo … I can do anything I want, but I’m not allowed to charge even one dollar,” Trump said at the briefing, summarizing his understanding of the high court’s ruling.
In those tariffs’ place, which the President claimed authority under IEEPA to implement, a global tariff authorized under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 will now be put in place, and the administration will be starting several trade investigations under section 301.
The White House, Trump said, is ready to replace his tariff regime, struck down by the Supreme Court, with “methods, statutes, practices, and authorities” recognized by the court system and Congress that “are even stronger than IEEPA tariffs.”
The alternative measures the administration will now put in place to replace the tariffs will “actually increase” the amount of money coming into the country on the basis of the court’s decision, Trump said at the briefing.
During the briefing, President Trump said his tariff regime was responsible for ending five of the eight wars he claims to have ended, and that the tariff regime was bringing in “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“When you read the dissenting opinion [from Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh], there’s no way that anyone can argue against” the decision, Trump said
The president also mentioned that “all national security tariffs” under section 232 and section 301 “remain fully in place and in full force and effect.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday leaves tariffs implemented under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — which cite national-security concerns — unchanged, keeping in place a ream of import duties on products ranging from copper and semiconductors to automobiles and wood products such as cabinetry.
Section 232 tariffs include 50% levies on imports of semi-finished copper products, 25% levies on certain imported semiconductors — including Nvidia’s (NVDA) H200 chips — and automobile tariffs, including 25% levies on trucks and 10% levies on buses.