economy
For his latest tariffs, Trump used a statute so obscure many lawyers didn’t even know it still existed. 'This law is literally a blank canvas'
In firing up a trade war with Canada, President Donald Trump turned to a 96-year-old statute so obscure that many trade lawyers didn’t even know it was still on the books.
TL;DR
- President Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose a 50% tax on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports.
- This statute, part of the Smoot-Hawley Act, had never been used or tested in court before.
- Legal experts question whether Section 338 has been superseded by more recent trade laws that have specific procedural requirements.
- There are doubts about whether the tariffs meet the requirement to 'offset' harm and if Canada's dairy market policies actually discriminate solely against U.S. farmers.
- No lawsuits have been filed to challenge these Section 338 tariffs, partly due to the difficulty of suing the government and the relatively smaller scale of these tariffs compared to previous ones.