Trump suggests trade deals would end if tariffs are struck down

[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump insinuated trade agreements with economies including the European Union, Japan and South Korea would be axed if his global tariffs are ultimately ruled illegal by the US court system.

Trump on Wednesday (Sep 3) said the duties gave him leverage to strike deals with major trading partners that saw the US raise import taxes on their products without retaliation – arrangements he said had given the world’s biggest economy “a chance to be unbelievably rich again”.

“If we don’t win that case, our country is going to suffer so greatly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “These deals are all done, I guess we’d have to unwind them.”

The US president has said that his administration would ask the Supreme Court as soon as Wednesday for a quick ruling in the hopes of overturning a lower court decision, upheld on appeal, that he wrongfully invoked an emergency law to impose his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.

The ruling injected fresh legal uncertainty into the fate of the president’s tariff agenda, with potential fallout for trillions of US dollars in global trade.

Trump has relied on a broad interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or Ieepa, to impose sweeping, country-specific duties without relying on Congress. Ieepa does not mention tariffs and has never been used to impose them.

Without those duties, it’s unclear if Trump would have the authority to unilaterally strike tariff deals with trading partners. Trump has repeatedly warned of dire economic consequences should the courts rule that he lacks the power to set tariff levels on his own. BLOOMBERG