{"id":298991,"date":"2025-07-28T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298991\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:12:11","slug":"trumps-tariffs-to-face-major-court-test-brought-by-us-small-business-owners-trump-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298991\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s tariffs to face major court test brought by US small business owners | Trump tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s strategy of imposing sweeping <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-tariffs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tariffs<\/a> on America\u2019s main trading partners will face a major test in the US courts on Thursday, four days after the president hailed the \u201cpowerful deal\u201d reached with the EU and just hours before a new round of punishing import duties is set to come into effect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Trump has underpinned his tariff policy with an emergency power that is now being challenged as unlawful in the federal courts. On Thursday the US court of appeals for the federal circuit will hear oral arguments in the case, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cafc.uscourts.gov\/opinions-orders\/25-1812.ORDER.6-10-2025_2518126102025.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VOS Selections v Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">A group of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/us-small-business\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">small business<\/a> owners are suing the US president on grounds that he lacks legal authority from Congress to impose severe tariffs that could damage their bottom line. The Trump administration has invoked a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), claiming that various national emergencies \u2013 including US trade deficits with trading partners and the scourge of fentanyl trafficking \u2013 demand urgent action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">But the plaintiffs <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105\/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105.92.0.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have countered<\/a> that the IEEPA does not give the president the power to impose tariffs, and has never been used in such a way in its almost half a century on the statute books.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">The case has the potential to derail Trump\u2019s most significant tariff deals and negotiations, which he has made a centrepiece of his second presidency. Given how much is riding on it, the suit is likely eventually to be settled by the US supreme court under its current 6-3 supermajority of hard-right justices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">In the short term, the challenge under the IEEPA looms as a black cloud over Trump\u2019s desire to claim victory on the tariff front, as his controversial strategy of slapping hefty import duties on major trading partners continues to roil global trade and markets. On Sunday, Trump struck a deal at his golf club in Scotland with the European Commission chief, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ursula-von-der-leyen\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ursula von der Leyen<\/a>, that will see 15% import tariffs on most EU goods entering the US.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Then on Friday, a day after the appeals court hears oral arguments, Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/07\/business\/trump-tariffs-trade-deals-august-1.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">latest round<\/a> of potentially destabilizing import duties is set to kick in. The targeted countries include some of the biggest suppliers of US imports, including Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Trump\u2019s tariff gamble has already been deemed to be illegal by a federal court, which ruled in May that the president had overshot his powers under trade laws. That ruling was paused by the appeals court that will be hearing the case on Thursday, pending its decision.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-9\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-rsfwa\">Sign up to This Week in Trumpland<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration<\/p>\n<p><strong>Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-9\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">The IEEPA gives the president the authority to regulate transactions with foreign countries, but only under a narrow set of circumstances. In particular, the power can only be wielded where there is an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">The small businesses leading the suit claim that Trump has not met such a rigorous standard, and that his tariffs are thus unlawful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s strategy of imposing sweeping tariffs on America\u2019s main trading partners will face a major test in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-298991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114931980278095220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}