US court blocks Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Sri Lanka and other countries

A US federal court has blocked President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade tariffs imposed on several countries, including Sri Lanka, in a major blow to a key component of his economic policies.

The Court of International Trade ruled that an emergency law invoked by the White House did not give the president unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every one of the world’s countries.

The New York-based court said the US Constitution gave Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other nations, and that this was not superseded by the president’s remit to safeguard the economy.

The Trump administration said it would appeal within minutes of the ruling.

A three-judge panel ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law that Trump cited to justify the tariffs, did not give him the power to impose the sweeping import taxes.

The court also blocked a separate set of levies the Trump administration imposed on China, Mexico and Canada, in response to what the administration said was the unacceptable flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the US.

However, the court was not asked to address tariffs imposed on some specific goods like cars, steel and aluminium, which fall under a different law.

The White House has criticised the ruling, though Trump has not yet commented directly.

“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said in a statement.

But Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, one of 12 states involved in the lawsuit, welcomed the decision.

“The law is clear: no president has the power to single-handedly raise taxes whenever they like,” she said.

Stock markets in Asia rose on Thursday morning following the ruling, US stock futures also jumped and the US dollar made gains against safe-haven peers, including the Japanese yen and Swiss franc. European markets opened flat. (BBC / Colombo Gazette)