One day after a federal court declared many of his tariffs to be illegal, President Trump and his top aides on Thursday rushed to resuscitate the centerpiece of the administration’s trade agenda, seeking to restore their ability to use the threat of eye-watering import taxes to force other nations into submission.
Shortly after the ruling, the administration petitioned a court to allow it to continue imposing its tariffs, reflecting a persistent worry throughout the White House that a defeat could severely undercut its capacity to wage a global trade war.
Since taking office, Mr. Trump had relied on a federal emergency powers law as a form of political leverage, hoping to use sky-high duties — or just the mere threat of them — to force other governments to make trade concessions to the United States.
But the little-known and highly specialized U.S. Court of International Trade dealt an early yet significant blow to that strategy late Wednesday. The bipartisan panel of judges found that the law did not grant the president “unbounded authority” to impose tariffs on nearly every country, as Mr. Trump had sought.
The Trump administration quickly petitioned the court to pause any enforcement as it pursues an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That would allow Mr. Trump, for now, to maintain many of the tariffs he has imposed on China, Canada and Mexico and preserve the threat of “reciprocal” rates, which he announced on most nations and then suspended in early April.
“I’m sure, when we appeal, this decision will be overturned,” said Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said in an appearance Thursday on Fox Business.
Still, the administration’s request reflected its palpable sense of worry about the president’s unresolved work to strike a series of trade deals. Some of Mr. Trump’s top advisers had specifically told the panel of judges in recent days that an adverse decision could hamstring their negotiations. The administration said in April that it planned to reach 90 deals in 90 days, with a deadline of mid-July.
“If this court limits that authority, foreign counterparts will have reduced incentives to reach meaningful agreements — resulting in the status quo that led to the national emergency,” Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, said in a declaration filed with the court last week.
Mr. Hassett downplayed the ruling, casting it as one of a few “little hiccups here and there.” He said that the president has other legal tools at his disposal to impose tariffs outside the economic emergency law. But he signaled Thursday that the administration is “not planning to pursue those right now.”
“It’s certainly not going to affect the negotiations. Because, in the end, people know President Trump is 100 percent serious, and they also have seen President Trump always wins,” he said.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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