Trump Tariffs Stay In Place For Now

US President Donald Trump can keep collecting import taxes, a federal appeals court has ruled, a day after a trade ruling found the sweeping global tariffs to be illegal. 

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington on Thursday, granted a bid from the White House to temporarily suspend the lower court's order, which ruled that Trump had overstepped his power by imposing the international duties. Wednesday's judgement from the US Court of International Trade drew the ire of Trump officials, who said it was an example of judicial overreach. 

Small businesses and a gang of states had challenged the measures, which are at the heart of Trump's economic and international agendas. 

In their appeal, the Trump administration said the decision issued by the trade court a day earlier had improperly second-guessed the president and threatened to unravel months of "hard-fought trade negotiations".  😂😂😂 

"The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy", they said in the filing, which threatened to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court if the earlier ruling was not put on hold. 

Shortly before the said tariff reprieve from the appeals court, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing: "America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges". 

The legal battle placed a question mark over the fate of the tariffs, which have rattled the global economy. In February, Trump ordered tariffs on goods from China, Mexico and Canada, saying the move was intended to help address a fentanyl crisis. Then last month, he unveiled a blanket 10% tariff on goods from most countries around the world, with higher duties on products from certain trade partners, including the European Union and China, considered "bad actors" by the administration. 

The White House have since suspended or revised parts of many of those proclamations, while they claim they're pursuing "trade negotiations". 

The appeals court decision to keep the tariffs in place for now did not weigh in on the broader questions of the case, which will continue to be litigated. The next hearing in the case is on June 05. 

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro insisted on Thursday that even if the White House lose their appeal, they remained committed to tariffs. He noted that the lower court's decision rejected the emergency law that Trump invoked to implement the tariffs, and not the import taxes specifically. 

The ruling did not affect other tariffs that Trump has imposed on specific materials such as steel, aluminium and cars, which were justified using different legal authorities. 

To impose the tariffs in question, Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law more typically applied in cases of trade sanctions, such as those on Iran. Those challenging the case said the law did not grant him such sweeping power over trade and tax policy, traditionally the responsibility of Congress. 

It put a spotlight on questions around the limits of presidential power, which Trump has eagerly tested since re-entering office in January. 

😮😮😮