The U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Canada and the rest of the world, ruling he exceeded his authority under an emergency-powers law.
The three-judge panel’s decision blocks both the fentanyl and border security-related tariffs on Canada and Mexico and the global “reciprocal tariffs” Trump imposed in April that have unleashed widespread economic chaos.
“The challenged tariff orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined,” the ruling says.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The Trump administration is expected to appeal.
Trump declared a national emergency on fentanyl to justify the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, saying they were necessary to elicit action from those countries to curb the flow of the deadly opioid.
He later ordered the United States’ trade deficits with several countries also amount to a national emergency, dubbing his announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs as “Liberation Day.”
Both emergencies were declared under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA), which the Trump administration argued gives the president broad power over how to respond, including through actions on imports to the U.S.
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But the court sided with several states and businesses that challenged the tariffs, saying only Congress has authority under the U.S. constitution to approve tariffs.
The plaintiffs argued that the IEPPA does not authorize the use of tariffs. Even if it did, they said, the trade deficits with foreign trading partners do not meet the law’s requirement that an emergency be triggered only by an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
In the case of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the court said they do not fit the emergency law’s definition of measures to “deal with” a threat to the U.S. — in this case, fentanyl and illegal immigration.
“‘Deal with’ connotes a direct link between an act and the problem it purports to address,” the court’s decision says.
“A tax deals with a budget deficit by raising revenue. A dam deals with flooding by holding back a river. But there is no such association between the act of imposing a tariff and the ‘unusual and extraordinary threat[s]’ that the Trafficking Orders purport to combat.”
A few U.S. senators have tried to introduce measures that would nullify Trump’s emergency orders and end the tariffs, but have failed to get them passed.
One of those lawmakers, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, told Global News during a visit to Ottawa last week that Trump’s fentanyl emergency declaration was only an excuse to impose tariffs on Canada.
“I just view it as an effort by the president to try to impose tariffs unilaterally,” he said. “To do so, he had to declare an emergency, and that was the emergency he came up with.”
Data from both countries shows that Canada is responsible for less than one per cent of fentanyl seized by U.S. border authorities.
However, a new U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency report said fentanyl production in Canada represents a “growing concern.”
Fentanyl seizures at the northern U.S. border also spiked last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, though remain a fraction of what’s seized at the southern border.
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