Donald Trump doubles foreign steel tariffs
When he visited the US steel facility in Pennsylvania, President Trump announced that he would double the tariff on foreign steel to 50%.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s tariffs “will not go away,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he downplayed a recent court decision that caused the majority of the president’s tariffs to be illegal and temporarily suspend taxes.
Lutnick’s June 1 comment on Fox News Sunday comes days after the International Trade Court ruled on April 2 that he lacked authority under the emergency powers he cited to impose mutual tariffs on imports from most countries. The appeals court later said Trump could continue to collect tariffs while challenging the ruling.
Lutnick predicted that Trump would win the appeal. However, he also mentioned other customs authorities if the High Court agreed to the Trade Court that bypassed the International Emergency Economic Force Act of 1977, and bypassed Parliament and issued tariffs.
“Don’t worry, the tariffs haven’t gone out,” Rutnik said. “He has a lot of other authorities, so even in the strange and unusual circumstances that have been taken away, we bring about something else or another authorities.”
In addition to the Trade Court’s ruling, the Washington federal district judge, DC, prevented the Trump administration from collecting tariffs from a pair of Illinois toy importers, and found that the same 1977 law did not give Trump the power to impose tariffs as he argued.
Trump tackled the legal battle in Sunday’s Post on True Society.
In a tariff whip from a court ruling, Trump announced on May 30 that he had doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from a 25% rate to 50%.
“I think it will take a week. It may take a week,” Lutnick said of the court’s decision, claiming that other countries still want to trade with the United States. “Everyone is back at the table. Everyone is talking to us. You’ll really see first class deals for American workers over the next few weeks.”
For two months, Trump and White House officials have boasted about the prospect of using tariffs to secure trade agreements with other countries. So far, the administration has only secured contracts with the UK, cutting large amounts of tariffs on each other for 90 days in addition to agreements with China. Trump later accused China of violating the tariff agreement on May 30.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said in CBS’ “the face of the people” that he hopes Trump will speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping soon, describing the issue of confident trade as “ironed.”
“They are withholding some of the products they agreed to release during our agreement,” Bescent said. “Maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it’s intentional. We’ll see the president talk to the party chair.”
The Chinese government said XI has not spoken to Trump since taking office on January 20th.
“I think we’ll see something soon,” Bescent said when asked if a meeting was scheduled for Trump to talk to XI.
Reach Joey Garrison with X @joeygarrison.
