Trump says he has ‘absolute right’ to impose tariffs after Supreme Court ruling

ISTANBUL

United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has “the absolute right” to impose new tariffs after the US Supreme Court decided that many of the import duties he enacted last year were unlawful.

Trump criticized the court on his social media platform Truth Social, saying it had “unnecessarily ransacked” the US, claiming that it “decided to, potentially, give away trillions of dollars to countries and companies that have been taking advantage of the United States for decades.”

In February, the Supreme Court ruled that a law meant to deal with national emergencies did not legally justify many of the tariffs the Trump administration had placed on countries worldwide.

Trump quickly introduced 10% tariffs on goods from much of the world using a different statute, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, according to The Guardian.

However, these measures expire after 150 days, in July. Although the president also promised to increase this temporary tariff to 15%, he has not yet implemented that change.

Last week, US officials initiated several trade investigations, potentially paving the way for a new round of permanent tariffs to replace those that were overturned.

“Our Supreme Court has made these countries very happy but, as the court pointed out, I have the absolute right to charge tariffs in another form, and have already started to do so,” Trump wrote on his platform.

However, the Supreme Court’s ruling did not state that the president has the absolute right to impose tariffs in another form.