Market Perspectives

Court rules against IEEPA tariffs, but the trade war is certainly not over

Last night, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled unanimously (3-0) against the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose unlimited global tariffs. This has been the Trump Administration’s favoured tool to quickly implement massive tariff rates against various countries — including the ‘fentanyl’ tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, that were first announced in early February, and are still being used against non-USMCA-compliant products, as well as all the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs that were announced on April 2.