Trump’s top trade negotiator has a plan to buck the Supreme Court if it rules against him
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The U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that President Donald Trump has a plan if the Supreme Court rules that there is no emergency action to justify his trade war.
According to The New York Times, Greer said that Trump will simply replace the tariffs immediately, side-stepping the ruling and using other levies.
In an interview, Greer said the administration would “start the next day” to bring back tariffs should the Supreme Court cancel them. One way or another, they will “respond to the problems the president has identified.”
“The reality is the president is going to have tariffs as part of his trade policy going forward,” Greer said.
Both Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both believe that the high court will uphold Trump's supremacy as the president.
“I believe that it is very unlikely that the Supreme Court will overrule a president’s signature economic policy,” Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“They did not overrule Obamacare, I believe that the Supreme Court does not want to create chaos," he added.
Trump's decision to impose tariffs was made under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. At the time, he claimed that the tariff deficit was a huge problem.
Trump has now extended that emergency power to issue new hefty tariffs on European nations that have agreed to help Denmark protect itself from a U.S. invasion and possible military action.
"Ted Murphy, an attorney at Sidley Austin, said in an emailed response that he believed that Mr. Trump would likely rely on IEEPA, the emergency law being reviewed by the courts, to impose those tariffs," the Times reported.
“I am not aware of any other trade statutes that would cover this situation (e.g., another nation refusing to sell the United States its sovereign territory),” wrote Murphy.
“Emergency powers are for emergencies,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on "Meet the Press" Sunday. “There’s no emergency with Greenland. That’s ridiculous.”
Georgetown University Law Center Professor Steve Vladeck said that it likely doesn't help the administration's case to be using his emergency powers to try and pressure a country into giving over land.
It's “not exactly a good look for the Trump administration, while trying to persuade the Supreme Court to endorse a novel and atextual interpretation of IEEPA” to then threaten an even more novel use of the same law, explained Vladeck.
“President Trump is doing no favors to his own legal arguments,” he added.