Lawyers Who Failed in Section 232 Case Wonder if Unified Democratic Government Would Reform Law
After the Supreme Court declined to hear a case about the constitutionality of Section 232 tariffs (see 2006220034), the director of the Cato Institute's trade policy studies center asked if there's any chance other cases could restrict the administration's power to levy tariffs on national security grounds. Gary Horlick, an attorney who was part of the team that brought the case the Supreme Court declined, noted there are cases still pending (see 2003260056 and 2007080055), but a fellow lawyer on the case, Don Cameron Jr., of Morris, Manning & Martin, said the chances are remote.
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Cameron said during the Cato webinar July 9, “If this issue on 232 is ever going to be addressed, it’s got to be addressed by Congress. That’s the reality of it.”
Daniel Ikenson, the trade policy center director, said that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, didn't seem like he wanted to do “something that might be seen as cutting off the president at the knees,” and he didn't want to choose between two bills offered by Republicans on his committee.
Ikenson asked if the Senate becomes majority Democrat, the House of Representatives stays majority Democrat, and Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election, would Congress amend the Section 232 statute to give Congress more power to stop a president who was wielding the statute indiscriminately?
Cameron said maybe not, but they should consider that Democrats might not always hold the White House. “When you’ve seen how it can be abused,” he said, you should rewrite the law.
Horlick said Biden defended congressional prerogatives while he was a senator, so he thinks it's possible Biden would not veto changes to the law that would give Congress more of a say.
When asked by International Trade Today if a Biden administration, in seeking to confront China with Europe and Japan, would roll back the tariffs on them, Cameron said he doesn't expect that the tariffs would change immediately.
He also said, “I find it difficult to believe that the 232 would be dismantled piecemeal.” But, he said, “I suspect Biden’s team would have a very different trade policy” from Trump's.
Horlick agreed, characterizing the Trump approach on trade as emotional and stuck in the past. “I would project a Biden administration would follow a much more cold-blooded process, and it would get results for the U.S.,” he said.