U.S. court says Trump has no right to impose sweeping tariffs
發佈日期: 2025-08-30 20:26
TVB News
A federal appeals court ruled U.S. President Donald Trump had no legal right to impose sweeping tariffs on almost every country on earth.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found Donald Trump overstepped his authority under an emergency powers law, a major legal blow that largely upheld a May decision by a specialised federal trade court in New York.
In a 7-4 ruling, the judges wrote "it seems unlikely Congress intended to grant the U.S. President unlimited authority to impose tariffs."
However, they did not strike down the tariffs immediately, allowing Trump's administration until mid-October to appeal to the Supreme Court. The U.S. president vowed to do just that.
In a social media post Trump wrote "if allowed to stand, this decision would literally destroy the United States of America."
White House spokesman Kush Desai said Trump had acted lawfully, and his administration "looks forward to ultimate victory on this matter."
The Trump administration has argued if the tariffs are struck down, it might have to refund some of the import taxes that it's collected.
The ruling complicates the U.S. president's ambitions to upend decades of American trade policy completely on his own.
A dissent from the judges who disagreed with Friday's ruling clears a possible legal path for Trump to fight back.
They argued a 1977 law allowing for emergency actions "is not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority under the Supreme Court's decisions," which have allowed the legislature to grant some tariff authorities to the president.
Trump has claimed the national emergency underlying the tariffs, was the long-running gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from the rest of the world.
