An American court of appeal judged that most of the prices issued by US President Donald Trump are illegal, creating a potential legal confrontation that could upset his foreign policy program.
The decision affects Trump’s “reciprocal” prices, imposed on most countries of the world, as well as other tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada.
In a decision 7-4, the American Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit rejected Trump’s argument according to which the prices were authorized under a law on emergency economic powers, calling them “invalid contrary to the law”.
The decision will not take effect until October 14 to give the administration time to ask the Supreme Court to take over the case.
Trump criticized the court and his decision on social truth, saying: “If she is authorized to stand, this decision would literally destroy the United States of America.”
“Today, a highly partisan court of appeal said that our prices should be deleted, but they know that the United States of America will finally win,” he wrote.
“If these prices disappeared, it would be a total disaster for the country. This would make us financially weak, and we must be strong.”
He added that other countries have imposed prices in the United States and predicted that the decision would be canceled by the Supreme Court.
Trump had justified the prices under the International Economic Economic Powers (IEEPA), which gives the President the power to act against “unusual and extraordinary” threats.
Trump has declared a national emergency on trade, arguing that a commercial imbalance is harmful to US national security. But the court judged that the imposing price is not in the mandate of the president and that they are “a basic power of the congress”.
In his judgment, the American Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit rejected Trump’s argument according to which the prices were authorized by his emergency economic powers, qualifying the samples of “invalid contrary to the law”.
The 127 -page decision indicates that the IEEPA “not mentions the prices (or none of its synonyms) and has no procedural guarantees which contain clear limits in the power of the president to impose prices”.
The power to impose taxes and prices therefore continues to belong to the Congress, ruled on the court, and the IEPA does not prevail.
The court wrote that it is unlikely that when the Congress adopted the law in 1977, it was intended to “deviate from its previous practice and to grant the unlimited president to impose prices”.
“Whenever Congress intends to delegate the authority to impose prices on the president, it does so explicitly, either using unequivocal terms such as prices and duties, or via a global structure which clearly indicates that Congress refers to prices,” the judges wrote.
The decision comes in response to two proceedings brought by small businesses and a coalition of American states.
The proceedings were filed after Trump’s decrees in May, which imposed a price of 10% on all countries of the world, as well as “reciprocal” prices on a dozen countries. Trump said that the date of the “Liberation Day” for America of unfair trade policies.
In addition to these prices, the decision also reduces prices on Canada, Mexico and China, which, according to Trump, is necessary to stop the importation of illegal drugs and migrants.
Friday, the decision does not apply to other prices, such as those imposed on steel and aluminum, which were imposed by another presidential authority.
In May, the International Commerce based in New York said the prices were illegal. This decision was put on hold for the
