The reciprocal tariff policy promoted by US President Trump has repeatedly faced obstacles in federal courts. As related cases have escalated to the Supreme Court, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen revealed on Sunday (September 7) that if the Supreme Court rules that the tariffs imposed by Trump this year on various countries are "unlawful," the US may refund hundreds of billions of dollars in collected tariffs. On Sunday, Yellen was interviewed by the US "National Broadcasting Company" (NBC), and when asked whether the government was prepared to refund the tariffs, she said, "If the court orders us to do so, we must comply," but she also expressed "full confidence" in the Trump administration's victory in this case.
[Clever] Comment: If the Supreme Court rules that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not grant the US president sufficient authority to impose tariffs, Trump can seek another law to support it; if there is no suitable law, since both the House and Senate are under Republican control at present, a new law could be passed to authorize it. If all the above approaches fail, although the US president does not have the power to impose tariffs universally on all countries, he still has the authority to issue presidential orders to impose tariffs on individual countries, as previous presidents have done. Trump's arbitrary use of tariff weapons may be difficult to constrain from the perspective of US domestic law and mechanisms, and perhaps can only wait for the economic backlash to come.
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1842742509237255/
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