Trump Plans to Impose New Illegal Tariffs on Canada

Today, Donald Trump announced plans to impose 50% tariffs on a wide range of Canadian imports to the United States:

President Trump is imposing 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods, from hockey equipment to alcoholic beverages, escalating the trade dispute between the two countries.

The new tariffs — laid out in a series of proclamations signed by Mr. Trump on Monday — are set to take effect on Aug. 19. The White House accused Canada of “unreasonable, unequal, and discriminatory actions” by imposing tariffs or import restrictions on certain American goods, some of which began after Mr. Trump’s initial round of tariffs on Canada last year.

In retaliation for last year’s Canadian tariffs on certain U.S. auto imports, the Trump administration slapped tariffs on certain Canadian electronics, hockey equipment, honey, flower bulbs, down feathers, plywood, cowhides, jewelry and other goods. The White House also imposed tariffs on Canadian beer, wine, liquor and milk, in response to Canadian boycotts of U.S. alcohol in response to last year’s tariffs and longstanding Canadian quotas on dairy imports.

Goods that flow across the border under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA — a trade deal inked during Mr. Trump’s first term — will not be exempt from the new tariffs, a senior administration official told reporters Monday.

The new tariffs are based on Section 338 of the notorious 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff legislation, which severely exacerbated the Great Depression. As Philip Zelikow of the conservative Hoover Institution explained in a guest post here at the VC blog, last year, Section 338 was long-ago superseded by new legislation enacted in 1962 and 1974, and is therefore defunct. For that reason, it has not been used since at least the 1940s.

Georgetown University trade policy scholar Peter Harrell summarizes additional useful points about the new tariffs on Twitter, including some additional legal objections to them. Should the new tariffs come into effect, there will likely be legal challenges, and those challenges will richly deserve to prevail.

I would add that this is just the latest of a series of efforts by Trump to usurp congressional tariff authority and impose harmful and dangerous trade restrictions that damage the US economy and poison relations with our allies and trading partners, of which Canada is one of the most important. That includes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court in February, in a case I helped bring, the  Section 122 tariffs  invalidated by the US Court of International Trade, his massive planned Section 301 tariffs, and – most recently – his threat to impose tariffs in Canada in response to wildfires there. Courts should continue to reject these dangerous power grabs and affronts to the rule of law.

I may well have more to say about these new tariffs later, especially if they end up getting implemented, as currently planned.