The US Supreme Court has declared President Donald Trump’s sweeping global trade tariffs to be illegal in a major blow to the White House.In a six-to-three ruling, judges on the United States’ highest court in a move that lead to the Trump administration having to pay back $150billion in tariff refunds.Judges ruled the law “does not authorise the President to impose tariffs”, with chief justice John Roberts delivering the opinion of the court. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from their peers on the Supreme Court.Since returning to the Oval Office last year, President Trump has made tariffs central to his economic agenda, imposing import taxes on allies in Europe and Asia.The majority of the White House’s tariffs were invoked using their reading of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Under this legislation, President Trump’s global “reciprocal” tariffs, and separate taxes were related to the alleged trafficking of deadly drugs into the US.While the IEEPA does not explicitly refer to tariffs, the legislation allows the President to “regulate … importation” of foreign property transactions after declaring a national emergency to handle “extraordinary threats”.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSRachel Reeves rakes in billions more than expected on capital gains tax to hit record budget surplusLabour’s tax and wage policies blamed for youth unemployment crisis: ‘It’s self-inflicted!’Ftse 100 PLUMMETS amid British Gas profits slip and Donald Trump-Iran tension escalationIt should be noted that today’s judgment does not affect all of the President’s tariffs, including the levies he imposed on steel and aluminium through different laws, which impacted the UK.However, it upends his tariffs on a country-by-country or “reciprocal” tariffs, which range from 34 per cent for China to the 10 per cent baseline for the rest of the world.Furthermore, the Supreme Court’s decision impacts the 25 per cent tariff imposed on some goods from Canada, China, and Mexico.As such, the President could attempt to use other laws in an attempt to reimpose these tariffs which are now deemed illegal.In his dissenting opinion, Judge Kavanaugh said: “The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers.”Ahead of today’s ruling, President Trump posted on Truth Social: “If the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, we’re screwed.”A Government spokesman confirmed the UK is working with the US to determine how the overturning of President Trump’s tariffs will affect Britain.However, the spokesman noted they expect “our privileged trading position with the US to continue”.
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