High officials of the White House minimized on Thursday the implications of a judicial ruling that blocked a series of tariff measures by President Donald Trump and expressed their confidence in an appeal.
“If someone thinks this surprised the administration, think twice,” said Peter Navarro, Trump’s commercial advisorin Bloomberg Television. “Nothing has really changed.”
The International Trade Court of The United States determined on Wednesday that the president had exceeded his authority by invoking the International Emergency Emergency Powers Law to justify some of its wide levies.
“In short, we have a very solid case with IEEPA“Navarro argued.” But the court basically tells us that, if we lose it, we will simply do other things. “
The director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hasett, said the administration is not yet considering alternatives. In statements to Fox Business, He affirmed that the administration is confident that the judicial ruling is incorrect and that the appeal will prosper.
“There are different approaches that would take a couple of months to implement them and use procedures that were approved in the past or approved during the last administration, But we don’t plan to implement them right now, ”said Hassett.
Navarro said that the US commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, will talk about the available tools and that “they will soon have their news.” Among the possible measures, Navarro mentioned the tariffs of Section 122, which imply levies of up to 15 % for 150 days. The reason why they were not initially applied was that “only 150 days are granted,” he explained.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group analysts said that the implications of the judicial ruling could be limited for commercial negotiations in which the Trump administration is involved, given the other available tariff options.
Hasset indicated that, in fact, the Administration intends to move forward with the negotiation of agreements with commercial partners despite legal uncertaintyand that I expected more agreements in the coming weeks.
Wednesday’s judicial ruling gave the administration 10 days to execute their order. This applies to Trump’s fixed global tariff, At elevated rates on China and other countries, and their tariffs related to fentanyl over China, Canada and Mexico, but leaves other taxes imposed by other means, such as the so -called encumbrances of section 232 and section 301.
“There is no doubt that there is an economic emergency”Navarro said. There is also an emergency “in a world where China has killed more than one million Americans with fentanil, and we take this measure to stop it,” he added.
