Trump tariffs could be overturned in Supreme Court trial

In May, a court ruled that Trump exceeded his authority in imposing the tariffs, although an appeal by his administration allowed them to remain temporarily in effect. Then, in August, a federal appeals court ruled 7-4 that the tariffs were illegal, upholding the lower court’s ruling, prompting Trump to take the dispute to the Supreme Court. The decision by the country’s highest court will have enormous repercussions, billions of dollars in customs revenue that the government has already collected are at stake, but the ruling could take months.

With a conservative majority, the Supreme Court may consider tariffs illegal, as they are Congress’s prerogative. On the other hand, the judges could also validate Trump’s trade reprisal policy, which the president sees as an essential tool of his presidential powers. The Supreme Court’s decision will leave out of its reach the sector-specific tariffs that Trump imposed, such as those on steel, aluminum and automobiles.

Existential threat

Experts predicted a major impact of tariffs on inflation, which did not materialize. But businesses, especially small ones, say they are absorbing most of the additional costs.

“These tariffs threaten the very existence of small businesses like mine, they make survival difficult, not to mention growth,” Victor Schwartz, one of the plaintiffs, told the press before the hearings opened. “It surprised me that those with so much more power and money didn’t step forward,” added Schwartz, founder of a family-owned wine importing company 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 began the tariff war in April, American customs duties soared to 145%, an additional bill that Gracie had to absorb.