World after the judicial rebuff of Trump tariffs

The US Supreme Court ruling provides reasons to celebrate, but the threat of tariffs under other legal provisions remains. Countries trading with the US should consider challenging this through all available forums

- Prabhash Ranjan

One of the US's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, asseverated long ago that if one wishes to prevent men in power from doing mischief, they must be bound by the chains of the Constitution. Wielding the power of judicial review, the US Supreme Court upheld this key tenet of liberal democracy based on the rule of law in its Learning Resources v Trump ruling. The question before the court was whether the US president has the power to impose tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) — a 1977 US federal legislation that gives the American president the power to regulate international commerce. This question arose as President Donald ‘Trump had last year used the Act's provisions to weaponise tariffs as a tool of geopolitics. Citing national emergency under the IEEPA, Trump unilaterally imposed tariffs of “unlimited duration, amount, and scope” on America’s trading partners — allies and rivals alike. These tariffs, which came to be known as reciprocal tariffs, wreaked havoc in the international trade world and toppled the rules-based international trading order.