SCOTUS To Review Tariff Authority

The legality of the Trump tariff plan will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Two separate challenges to Donald Trump’s authority to impose tariffs on trading partners will be argued before the nation’s highest court on November 5th. The challenges focus on the language in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Congress passed in 1977. The Act gives broad powers to the President during a declared emergency. 

Both sides of the case have asked for a quick ruling from the Court.

During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on September 7th, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated that the Treasury would have to refund roughly half of the tariffs that have been taxed since April. 

Kristen Welker, Meet The Press: “Would you offer rebates though? Are you prepared to offer rebates?”

Scott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary: “So we would have to give a refund on about half the tariffs, which would be terrible for the Treasury.”

Kristen Welker, Meet The Press: “And you're prepared to get those refunds.”

Scott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary: “Well, I mean, there's no be prepared. If the court says it, we'd have to do it.”

The tariffs levied by the White House have gathered an estimated $100 billion dollars in the last 6 months. Goldman Sachs calculates that 85% percent of the tariffs have been paid by American companies and consumers. 

The White House expressed confidence in trade talks with China this week. The talks centered on ownership of social media platform Tik-Tok, but also discussed trade broadly. The U.S. threatened to raise tariffs on China again if the European Union raised duties to punish China for buying Russian oil.

Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser: “But as a practical matter, we know that on the trade side, they have the highest tariffs of any major country. They have very high non-tariff barriers.”

Many of the trade barriers are to protect Indian agriculture, which employs roughly 700 million people. Poverty among Indian farmers has been a contentious political issue for decades.

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs