The U.S. offered its most fulsome defense of President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs to date, submitting a reply to a group of five importers' motion for a preliminary injunction and summary judgment at the Court of International Trade on April 29. The government argued that the text, context, history and purpose of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act lets the president impose tariffs and that IEEPA doesn't confer an unconstitutional delegation of authority to the president (V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, CIT # 25-00066).
Auto companies are feeling like they're being yanked around with ever-changing tariffs, said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who was a senior public affairs executive at GM before becoming a politician. "Every business, whether small business or large business, needs certainty," she said, but instead, lawyers are scrambling to figure out what the impact is of the changing tariffs. She said she has talked to lawyers every day since this began.
Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who served in that role in President Donald Trump's first term, told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that he thinks "there’s a reasonable chance the CIT would enjoin" tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Trump used IEEPA to levy 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over fentanyl and migration, as well as 20% tariffs on China over fentanyl, and used it to levy 10% tariffs on countries other than those three, and an additional 125% tariffs on Chinese goods.
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Automakers who build cars in America and import parts to do so will get a partial credit against the costs of 25% Section 232 tariffs on non-USMCA qualifying parts -- but the Commerce Department will examine companies' projections of both how many cars and light trucks they expect to build in the U.S. between April 3, 2025, and April 30, 2026, and the aggregate value of the MSRP of those vehicles.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order April 29 exempting all goods "subject to" International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs on Canada and Mexico from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a TV interview that "an agreement in principle" can be reached with 17 trading partners to prevent "the tariffs there from ratcheting back to the maximum level."
The Pacific Legal Foundation, the libertarian legal advocacy group that recently brought a case against the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on behalf of 11 importers, has had "preliminary" talks with the other advocacy groups that have brought cases challenging the tariffs on whether to proceed with separate cases. Molly Nixon, attorney at the foundation, told us she's "in touch" with the two other groups who have brought cases against the tariffs, the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Liberty Justice Center, but that nothing is confirmed about whether the groups will combine cases.
Recent U.S. trade actions, such as the IEEPA tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives, and the temporarily paused reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries worldwide, could cause global container volumes to slump by 1% in 2025, according to U.K-based maritime shipping advisory firm Drewry.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to answer questions about why he told Wall Street investors that the U.S. is looking to de-escalate the trade war with China, and asked him to confirm if other executives heard information about progress toward a trade deal with India.