Nations Jockey for Better Trade Position Following Supreme Court Ruling, but Many Deals May Already Be Done

Any changes coming to trade deals following the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the president’s use of emergency economic powers will not be as big as people might think, President Trump’s top trade official said Sunday, even as some trading partners jockey to renegotiate.With outstanding trade agreements yet to be signed with China, India, the European Union, and other deals agreed to but not yet ratified at home, several nations are looking at whether they can gain an upper hand following the court’s ruling late last week. The European Commission is meeting on Tuesday to vote to accept a deal negotiated last July that would have imposed a 15 percent tax rate on the EU. Now, some parliamentarians say they want to postpone the vote to ensure that the EU is getting the best deal.“The original tariffs were based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That basis has been declared invalid. Now the US is falling back on Section 122 of the Trade Act (1974), a different legal basis that applies for a maximum of 150 days. That changes everything,” a Belgian member of parliament, Kathleen van Brempt, wrote Sunday on X.“It remains highly unclear what that precisely means for the current tariff deal with the European Union. Without legal certainty, Europe cannot take any further steps. Businesses cannot operate in a context where tariffs are constantly changing,” she added. However, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says that most of the deals are not dependent on the economic emergency powers. That tool was just the premise to get them to the negotiating table.“The policy hasn’t changed. The legal tool to implement it — that might change, but the policy hasn’t changed,” he said on ABC’s This Week. President Trump on Saturday announced that he was raising tariffs across the board to 15 percent after initially saying Friday he would impose a 10-percent rate following the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the president’s previous deals. The tariffs are to be imposed under multiple trade powers rules that the administration claims give the president wide latitude. Among them are Section 232 and Section 301 of trade law. Those provisions refer to presidential authority to impose tariffs based on national security and intellectual property interests. The time-limited Section 122, which the president cited on Saturday, addresses balance-of-payment deficits. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the administration will use the next 150 days authorized under Section 122 to study sections 232 and 301. He said those rules will likely permit higher tariffs.Those tariffs rules “remain in effect and have withstood more than 4,000 challenges since the president’s first term,” Mr. Bessent told CNN’s State of the Union. Mr. Greer acknowledged that the trade provisions do not provide the “same flexibility” the president used under the economic emergency powers authority, but that these “durable tools” allow the administration to leverage and protect American industry. “That’s why they signed these deals even while the litigation was pending,” Mr. Greer said of agreements reached with dozens of nations. He added that he expects the relevant sections to ensure continuity of negotiations.“These deals are going to be good deals. We expect to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them. And I haven’t heard anyone yet come to me and say the deal’s off. They want to see how this plays out, I’m in active conversation with them on it,” he said on Face the Nation.While several countries have been stiffed with tariff rates higher than 15 percent, many nations and the EU had already negotiated a 15-percent agreement. In a statement on Saturday, the European Commission insisted that its rate stay where it is, calling “a deal is a deal.” “As the United States’ largest trading partner, the EU expects the U.S. to honour its commitments set out in the Joint Statement — just as the EU stands by its commitments,” reads the statement, “In particular, EU products must continue to benefit from the most competitive treatment, with no increases in tariffs beyond the clear and all-inclusive ceiling previously agreed.”While the administration seeks to finalize trade deals, some nations, however, are looking for a leg up. Ahead of the president’s visit to China at the end of March, Mr. Bessent is stepping in ahead of time to ensure the elements of the existing deal remain in place. A director at Fudan University’s Center for American Studies, Wu Xinbo, told Bloomberg that the Supreme Court’s ruling reduces Mr. Trump’s negotiating power to demand larger purchases of American goods, like a pledged 25 million-ton purchase of soybeans by China, or a delivery of rare earth metals essential to American manufacturing.“Ultimately, this Supreme Court ruling puts China in a much stronger bargaining position,” Mr Wu told the news agency. “If those tariffs are now deemed illegal, the ‘soybean card’ is back in China’s hand.”Mr. Greer told Fox News Sunday that the president is planning to rely on his and his administration’s relationships with President Xi Jinping and his staff to reach an agreement. While the tariffs levels may be in limbo for some nations, analysts are questioning whether Mr. Trump will be able to elicit some of the investment pledges he garnered from nations in exchange for lower rates. For instance, South Korea and Japan offered to bring industry back to American shores in exchange for lower rates. The impact of reneging on those offers could reach trillions of dollars.Additionally, earlier this month, India and America had reached the principles of an agreement that would reduce tariffs on Indian goods entering the United States to 18 percent from 50 percent after India agreed to stop importing Russian oil, a decision that Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted in his dissent is directly in line with the use of the economic emergency powers cited by the president. In the deal, India also agreed to impose no reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods entering the country. With the Supreme Court’s ruling, however, India has now pushed back meetings scheduled for this week to finalize the arrangement that was set to go into effect in April, according to an official speaking to CNBC. The head of India’s Ministry of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, said Friday that a deal will be signed in March.

Nations Jockey for Better Trade Position Following Supreme Court Ruling, but Many Deals May Already Be Done

Nations Jockey for Better Trade Position Following Supreme Court Ruling, but Many Deals May Already Be Done

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