US Supreme Court hears case on legality of Trump's tariffs, with implications for S'pore

Spain, France, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil and China came up for a mention in the three-hour debate in the United States Supreme Court about President Donald Trump's favourite instrument for all seasons tariffs.

- Bhagyashree Garekar US Bureau Chief

Singapore was not named, but some parallels were striking as the nation's highest court deliberated on Nov 5 whether Mr Trump has the authority to impose sweeping tariffs on every US trading partner under a law that was designed for use during a national emergency.

This President has torn up the entire tariff architecture, argued Mr Neal Katyal, a lawyer representing a group of small businesses challenging the Trump administration. He made the case that Mr Trump's tariffs did not address a real emergency.

"For example, he is tariffing Switzerland, one of our allies, with which we have a trade surplus of 39 per cent," Mr Katyal said.

The argument would hold good for Singapore, America's free trade partner since 2004 and with whom the US does not have a trade deficit, which Mr Trump says is a sign of unfair trade practices by other countries that are hurting US manufacturing and national security, and constitute a national emergency.

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US goods trade surplus with Singapore was US$1.9 billion (S$2.48 billion) in 2024, while services trade surplus with Singapore was US$25.1 billion.

"We have had all sorts of emergencies for 238 years," Mr Katyal said. "No president has ever said, 'Oh, the way to deal with that is I need to have a tariff authority'"

The hearing took place on the first anniversary of Mr Trump's victory in the 2024 election. Within months of being sworn in, he imposed the tariffs, which are estimated to be bringing in more than half a billion dollars in Customs revenue daily.

Going by the points raised by the judges during the hearing, the US media has speculated that the ruling may not go Mr Trump's way, even though the 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court has backed Mr Trump in many contentious cases.