After a court ruling last night found
that Trump's global tariffs are illegal,
US morning shows were ftting over what
that actually means.
>> Come up with foreign policy, national
security reasons to enforce all the
other uh tariffs.
>> Exactly.
>> While President Trump was seen heading
out today on Labor Day weekend for a
spot of golf.
>> In other words, they charge us, we
charge them, we charge them less. So,
how can anybody be upset? The court said
Trump had overreached in his use of
emergency powers when he used a piece of
legislation from 1977 to justify the
tariffs. The ruling upheld a decision
back in May by the New York-based Court
of International Trade. The legal
challenge began with two lawsuits, one
filed by a group of small businesses and
a coalition of US states. But I think
what the court today said is look, if
the president thinks these tariffs are
so important, and today I guess he said
they're going to destroy the country if
you don't have the tariffs, then make
that case to Congress. That's what every
president has done before him.
>> Taking to Truth Social, Trump criticized
the appeals court and its ruling, saying
all tariffs are still in effect. If they
went away, it would be a total disaster
for the country. It would make us
financially weak. And if allowed to
stand, this decision would literally
destroy the United States of America.
The court has allowed tariffs to remain
in place until mid-occtober. The ruling
now raises questions about deals some
leaders like Prime Minister Kier Stalmer
were able to thrash out with Trump to
reduce their levies. And the ruling
doesn't touch steel and aluminium
tariffs. All in all, it creates major
confusion and uncertainty for business.
very important document.
>> With tariffs still in place for now,
Trump's entire economic policy is in
limbo, setting up an unprecedented legal
showdown at the Supreme Court this
autumn.
As workers march in the capital to
protest Trump's policies, the White
House will be hoping they remain intact.
Six of the 11 justices at the Supreme
Court are Republicans, including three
who were selected by Trump himself, but
they've previously been wary of old laws
being stretched to give presidents new
powers.
Emily wither there. Well, a little
earlier I spoke to Linda Yu, who is a
professor of economics at the London
Business School, and I asked her if
Donald Trump's centerpiece policy is
truly in peril.
>> It might actually be in peril. There's a
couple of decisions now uh including
from the US court of international trade
upheld on appeal which is the decision
that came out overnight which basically
says the authority he relied on to
impose across the board tariffs and
pretty much you know all US trading
partners um exceeds his authority.
However, his car policy um I'm sure will
continue under different guises because
uh what was not struck down by the
appeals court uh were the sectoral
tariffs. So these are the 50% tariffs on
steel aluminium I should say 25% for the
UK because it was negotiated as part of
the trade deal. These tariffs are the
ones that actually have significant
impact and can be uh expanded. But hang
on, he's in a fight with the Fed. The
markets aren't happy about this stuff.
Americans are paying more for their um
beloved cups of coffee because in part
of tariffs, it's not going totally
perfectly for the president to put it
mildly.
>> So um the uh tariffs can work to raise
revenue but they are a blunt tool. Um so
I think all the things that you
mentioned um number of studies now uh
come that have come out from uh various
uh economic uh institutions find
essentially American households are now
paying thousands more per year on things
they buy and there's not a lot of ready
substitutes for instance inflation um is
around 2.7%
in the latest figures which is of course
higher than the 2% target. So there's a
lot of reasons why um you know
terrorists um are causing I think
certainly uh economic there's an
economic impact.
>> One thing you've got to say about global
capitalism it likes stability above all
else. That's what investors want. This
is not good for world markets is it?
>> No. The uncertainty is dampening um as
you would imagine uh business activity.
So, in other words, if you think um that
these tariffs might be overturned by the
uh Supreme Court, you may just want to
wait a while uh to sell your goods to
the US. We've actually already seen a
lot of behavior like that where goods
are being rrooted. Um they're being held
back. And so, this uncertainty means
that businesses aren't pushing ahead
with growth, with shipping things, with
investment. And that's actually why if
you look at forecast of growth, pretty
much growth this year um is expected to
be uh slower um as a result of the
terrorists.
>> Given everything you've said, this is an
unusual way to take your country into
the midterm elections, is it not? The
takeaway from all the rulings that we've
seen certainly um from this latest one
is that Congress has the power to set
legislation including broad-based
tariffs. So it' be interesting to see
whether uh Congress
um after all of this and thinking about
the politics and inflation and all the
things that um their voters might worry
about um might take um a more prominent
uh stand. Linda, you thanks very much
indeed. Thank you.