U.S Tariffs To Continue If Supreme Court Rules Against Trump: Treasury Secretary

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Donald Trump will still be able to levy tariffs on foreign goods even if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the president.

Speaking Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Bessent cited specific sections of the 1962 Trade Act that he said would continue to give Trump the power to invoke import duties regardless of the court decision.

“We can recreate the exact tariff structure with (Sections) 301, with 232, with 122,” Bessent told host Andrew Ross Sorkin, founding editor of DealBook and co-host of CNBC’s Squawk Box.

According to Section 122 of the Trade Act, tariff powers are allowed for only 150 days. However, the other sections are less clear on an exact time frame.

What if court rules against Trump?
Trump has invoked tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which the Supreme Court is set to rule on after it heard arguments on Nov. 5.

While Bessent said he remains “optimistic” that the court will be in Trump’s favour, he warned that if the president’s tariffs are ruled illegal, it would be a negative outcome for the country.

“Everyone says it will be a loss for the administration,” Bessent said. “I think it’ll be a loss for the American people.”

Bessent said the purpose of tariffs is to rebalance trade and to bring back domestic production, adding Trump’s measures have also helped the country deal with fentanyl trafficking originating from China.

“The IEEPA authority gave the president and our team much more negotiating room and they, let me tell you, there were plenty of other times and I said it several times, if IEEPA’s an emergency power, if the fentanyl crisis wasn’t an emergency … then what was?

“Now, because of the fentanyl tariffs, the Chinese are making the first step forward that they’ve made in, I don’t know when fentanyl came on the scene, but they are making a robust effort to redo that.”

A Supreme Court ruling could come this month after lower courts earlier ruled that the law Trump invoked doesn’t clearly allow the president to authorize import duties.

Costco joins lawsuit against gov’t
Last week, Costco said it became the latest company since late October to sue the U.S. government for tariff refunds if the Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s use of IEEPA.

The U.S.-based warehouse club chain it was joining smaller businesses and Democratic state officials in challenging Trump’s authority to invoke tariffs.

In September, the Trump administration said the U.S. would face “economic catastrophe” if the president’s tariffs were ruled illegal.

“The president and his Cabinet officials have determined that the tariffs are promoting peace and unprecedented economic prosperity, and that the denial of tariff authority would expose our nation to trade retaliation without effective defenses and thrust America back to the brink of economic catastrophe,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the justices.