Sections 122 and 301: understand the new path through which Trump plans to impose tariffs
WASHINGTON — President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Friday (20) that he will impose a new 10% general tariff on the country’s trading partners, as part of a series of measures aimed at preserving his trade war after the Supreme Court declared many of his harshest tariffs illegal.
In a defiant tone even in the face of legal defeat, Trump stated, in a press conference, that he has not backed down and that he intends to rely on other federal laws to try to reproduce the heavy taxes on imports that the judges invalidated.
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Trump said, on the one hand, that he will activate a legal device known as Section 122 — never before used by a president — to impose a 10% global tariff in the coming days. In parallel, he stated that he will resort to a second set of instruments, known as Section 301, to open investigations into alleged unfair commercial practices in certain countries, which were not specified.
Taken together, Trump tried to present the measures as a close replacement for his emergency tariffs, which had been applied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, known by its acronym IEEPA. He used this legislation because he believed it gave him the flexibility to impose and remove high tariffs immediately and without going through Congress, as a way of pressuring other countries to accept US demands.
The two legal bases mentioned by Trump this Friday, however, have very different and clearer limits of use. The new 10% tariff may be in effect for only 150 days, unless parliamentarians approve an extension. The application of this rule has not yet been tested in court, but the law gives the president powers to deal with issues such as the increase in the trade deficit.
Investigations into unfair trade practices can take longer, which tends to delay government efforts to reinstate higher import tariffs. This instrument, however, is more consolidated from a legal point of view, and the president has used it since his first term, especially to impose tariffs on China.
