The Donald Trump administration was all up in arms about their tariffs in front of a trade court in New York on Wednesday. They were like, “Yo, if you take away these tariffs, you’re gonna totally cripple the US president during the trade talks with China, man.” This was the second time in a week that the Court of International Trade had to deal with a lawsuit questioning whether Trump’s use of a “national emergency” was legit under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The IEEPA is this law from way back in 1977 that lets the US prez slap economic measures on during a national emergency to tackle some kind of “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The lawsuit on Wednesday was brought by the state of Oregon and 11 other states, and they weren’t just talking about the “Liberation Day” tariffs Trump pulled out on April 2. They were also going after the 20 per cent tariffs he dropped in February on China, Mexico, and Canada because of fentanyl stuff. The Trump administration was like, “Nah, these emergency declarations can’t be touched by the courts, only Congress can stick their nose in our business.”
The Trump administration was really pushing the fentanyl precursors as the reason for those high tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada this year. They were like, “Yo, we gotta crack down on this fentanyl production and trafficking, so we need these tariffs.” Not really sure why this matters, but I guess it’s a big deal for them. So, the court had to listen to all this back and forth between the states and the administration, trying to figure out who’s in the right. Who knows what’s gonna happen next in this whole mess, right? But hey, that’s politics for ya.
