United States President Donald Trump’s trade agenda has received a major blow after a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, ruled that many of his global tariffs are illegal.
The court, in its ruling cited an overreach of presidential authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
In a 7-4 decision, declared that Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on countries like China, Canada, and Mexico exceeded the legal scope of the IEEPA, which does not explicitly grant authority to impose tariffs.
The judges held that the IEEPA, traditionally used for sanctions and asset freezes, does not authorize the president to impose global tariffs without clear congressional approval.
The judges also ruled that the power to impose taxes and tariffs, therefore, continues to belong to Congress, maintaining that the IEEPA does not override this.
The court wrote that it is unlikely that when Congress passed the law in 1977, it was intended to “depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs”.
“Whenever Congress intends to delegate to the President the authority to impose tariffs, it does so explicitly, either by using unequivocal terms like tariff and duty, or via an overall structure which makes clear that Congress is referring to tariffs,” the judges wrote.
Meanwhile, the ruling on Trump’s trade agenda will not take effect until 14 October to give the administration time to ask the Supreme Court to take up the case.
This means the case is expected to head to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Reacting to the judgment, Trump criticised the judges of the appeals court.
Taking to his official Truth Social account, Trump asserted: “If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America.
“Today a Highly Partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end.
“If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong.”
Recall that Trump recently announced the imposition of “reciprocal” tariffs, which range from 10% on most global imports to 50% on specific countries like India and Brazil, as well as tariffs imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China in response to issues like fentanyl trafficking and trade deficits.
For Nigeria, Trump imposed a 15% tariff on goods coming into the U.S.
