CFR: Trump's Tariffs Are An Unconstitutional Power Grab

[Montauk6]

Declaring a national emergency to exact concessions is a ploy to seize authority.
Article by Inu Manak, Author
Originally published at Foreign Policy
February 14, 2025 11:12 am (EST)

After announcing sweeping new tariffs on the United States’ top three trading partners, U.S. President Donald Trump seems to have agreed to a 30-day pause on any new duties on Canada and Mexico while leaving those on China in place. The final outcome is still uncertain, and the drama that unfolded over the last week should not distract from the bigger picture: With his decrees on trade, Trump is making an unconstitutional power grab by using the declaration of a national emergency to grant himself authority he does not have. Congress, whose constitutional powers to regulate trade Trump has usurped, should act swiftly to retain its authority and bring back stability to U.S. trade policy.

In announcing the tariffs, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives a U.S. president sweeping powers to regulate the economy during wartime or another emergency caused by a foreign threat. The law essentially grants a president extraordinary economic powers “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat” if he “declares a national emergency with respect to such threat.” The White House outlined its view of the current threat in Proclamation 10886, which on Jan. 20 declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, supposedly “overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans, including America.”

Trump expanded the emergency beyond the southern border to also cover “the public health crisis of deaths due to the use of fentanyl and other illicit drugs,” claiming insufficient action by Canada and China to interdict shipments. His response to these claimed threats was a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico, 25 percent on imports from Canada (except energy at 10 percent), and an additional 10 percent on imports from China. Since Chinese goods are currently charged with an average rate of 10 percent and most tariffs on Canada and Mexico are near zero, Trump’s decree would have imposed higher levies against them than against China, a U.S. adversary, and put a significant shock to North American trade. Experts have called these tariff actions “reckless” and a “self-inflicted wound to the American economy,” while companies have warned that widespread tariffs will further upend supply chains and stoke inflation.

Cont'd: https://www.cfr.org/article/trumps-tariffs-are-unconstitutional-power-grab

(Wow, my old right-wing compatriots from way back, when I was "in the life," would keel over seeing me cite material from the Council on Friggin' Foreign Relations🤣