Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A:
A new report from the Cato Institute argues that several laws authorize the president to impose tariffs on a wide range of imported goods without substantial procedural or institutional safeguards.
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The report explains that several laws provide the president with “vast and discretionary authority to unilaterally impose sweeping trade restrictions.” Some of these are familiar to the trade community because of their recent use. Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the president to restrict imports determined by the Bureau of Industry to represent a threat to national security, though the only time this law has been used to impose tariffs is when Trump targeted steel and aluminum imports in 2017. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the imposition of tariffs or other trade restrictions on a wide set of products imported from a targeted country or countries to address harmful foreign economic policies. This law was heavily used in the 1980s but was largely dormant after that until Trump used it to levy tariffs on imports from China.
Other laws include tariff authorities as well, even though none of them has ever been used in this manner. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 grants the president wide discretionary authority to address threats to national security, foreign policy, or the domestic economy from a source outside the U.S. Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act authorizes new or additional tariffs of up to 50 percent on imports from countries that have discriminated against U.S. commerce, and if the discrimination continues the president may block such imports entirely or expand the trade restrictions to third-party countries that benefit from the discriminatory conduct. Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act could be used to unilaterally implement a 15 percent global tariff for 150 days to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits.