It is a case that attacks the core of the Republican president’s economic agenda.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has invoked emergency economic powers to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on trade practices that Washington considers unfair.
It has also imposed specific tariffs on the United States’ main trading partners: Mexico, Canada and China.
But these customs duties, a key pillar of his “America First” trade policy, were quickly challenged in court.
A court ruled in May that Trump exceeded his authority by imposing the tariffs, although his administration’s appeal allowed them to temporarily remain in effect.
Then a federal appeals court ruled 7-4 in August that the liens were illegal. This upheld the lower court’s decision, prompting Trump to take the dispute to the Supreme Court.
The decision by the nation’s highest court will have important repercussions, but the ruling could take months.
The Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, could consider the tariffs illegal, since they are the prerogative of Congress.
Or the judges could consider valid the demands of Trump, who considers this policy of trade retaliation to be an essential tool of his presidential powers.
At stake are, on the other hand, billions of dollars in customs revenue that the government has already collected.
The Supreme Court ruling will still leave Trump’s sector-specific tariffs, including those on steel, aluminum and automobiles, out of reach.
Existential threat
Specialists predicted a great impact of tariffs on inflation that has not materialized. But businesses, especially small ones, say they are bearing the brunt of the additional costs.
“These tariffs threaten the very existence of small businesses like mine, making it difficult to survive, not to mention growth,” Victor Schwartz, one of the plaintiffs, told the press before the opening of the hearings.
“I was surprised that those with much more power and money did not step forward,” added Schwartz, founder of a family-owned wine importing business in New York called VOS Selections.
Another New York-based businessman, Mike Gracie, who imports hand-painted decorative paper from China, said Trump’s high tariffs meant “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in new costs.
When Washington and Beijing launched the tariff battle in April, US customs duties soared to 145%, an additional bill that Gracie had to absorb.
“We didn’t want to risk our business by raising prices,” he told AFP. “But we can’t keep absorbing them indefinitely.”
Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania noted that 40% of U.S. imports are intermediate goods, meaning they are not for retail consumers, and warned that keeping tariffs in place means U.S. companies “become less competitive.”
