Opinion | Southeast Asia, do not mistake Trump’s tariff defeat for a reprieve
One court loss won’t end the trade wars. But if ‘Peak Trump’ has arrived, the region’s negotiating hand may have just got stronger
In a sharp rebuke to his administration, the nation’s highest court has ruled that Trump’s use of the IEEPA authority was unconstitutional. Other tariffs implemented under separate statutes, such as the sector-specific Section 232 steel and aluminium tariffs, are unaffected.
What are the broader implications of the Supreme Court’s decision for Southeast Asia and beyond? Three points are especially noteworthy:
Given telltale signals during Supreme Court oral arguments last November, Trump’s trade officials were fully prepared for the likelihood of an adverse ruling. Now that it has come to pass, they will simply move forward to recreate the tariff regime under one or more alternative authorities, such as Section 301 or Section 232. Indeed, Trump wasted little time after the ruling in announcing a global 10 per cent tariff (later increased to 15 per cent) under a separate authority: Section 122.