Court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers law

A federal trade court on Wednesday blocked US President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law.

The ruling from a three-judge panel at the New York-based Court of International Trade came after several lawsuits arguing Mr Trump has exceeded his authority, left US trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Trump administration is expected to appeal.

At least seven lawsuits are challenging the levies, the centrepiece of Mr Trump’s trade policy.

Tariffs must typically be approved by Congress, but Mr Trump says he has the power to act because the country’s trade deficits amount to a national emergency.

He imposed tariffs on most of the countries in the world at one point, sending markets reeling.

The plaintiffs argue that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) does not authorise the use of tariffs.

Even if it did, they say, the trade deficit does not meet the law’s requirement that an emergency be triggered only by an “unusual and extraordinary threat”.

The US has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world for 49 consecutive years.

Mr Trump imposed tariffs on most of the countries in the world in an effort to reverse America’s massive and longstanding trade deficits.

He earlier plastered levies on imports from Canada, China and Mexico to combat the illegal flow of immigrants and the synthetic opioids across the US border.

His administration argues that courts approved then-president Richard Nixon’s emergency use of tariffs in 1971, and that only Congress, and not the courts, can determine the “political” question of whether the president’s rationale for declaring an emergency complies with the law.

Mr Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs shook global financial markets and led many economists to downgrade the outlook for US economic growth.

So far, though, the tariffs appear to have had little impact on the world’s largest economy.