Illegal Tariffs, Round 3

Another failing war Trump won’t end

Remember tariffs?

Fourteen months ago, Donald Trump announced that he was starting a trade war by imposing sweeping tariffs on almost every nation in the world. His move caused shock waves, and not just because of the economic impact.

The Trump tariffs were clearly illegal — taxes imposed not via proper legislation, but by invoking an obscure existing law intended to deal with economic emergencies, even though no emergency existed. Also, by imposing these tariffs unilaterally, Trump was violating many decades’ worth of solemn U.S. agreements with other nations, including our closest allies. So “Liberation Day” marked the end of rule of law at home — goodbye separation of powers, hello a monarchical system in which the president does whatever he wants. And it also marked the transformation of the United States into a rogue nation that holds its erstwhile allies in contempt and can’t be trusted to honor its promises.

The initial shock has faded, largely because there have been so many outrages since, from pogroms at home to the disastrous war in Iran. And the Supreme Court, after dragging its feet for many months, eventually, grudgingly, ruled that the illegal tariffs were, in fact, illegal, and will have to be refunded.

But Trump officials kept many of the tariffs in place using another obscure law, this one intended to deal with balance of payments emergencies, although again no such emergency existed. This invocation of “Section 122” will probably also be ruled illegal at some point, but in any case the law sets a 150-day time limit on such tariffs, so the Trumpists needed another dodge.

Yesterday it came in the form of “Section 301” tariffs on 60 trading partners, including the European Union and Japan. Section 301 is titled “Relief from Unfair Trade Practices.” So what are the unfair practices the Trumpists say the whole world is engaging in?

The answer is that the Trump administration is accusing other countries of “failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

Notice the wording. They aren’t accusing the European Union itself of employing slave labor. Even the Trumpists aren’t willing to lie that shamelessly (yet). No, the claim is that the EU isn’t doing enough to stop countries that do employ slave labor from selling their goods in Europe.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, understands that the alleged justification for these tariffs is a lie. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the EU is less diligent about opposing the use of slave labor than the US. For that matter, there is no reason to believe that Trump and his minions have any particular objection to slave labor. This is nothing but a transparently, one might say sneeringly, bogus rationale for continuing to flout both US law and international agreements.

Why do Trump’s minions keep using legal tricks and lies to impose tariffs? There is, after all, no reason they couldn’t simply ask Congress to impose tariffs through normal legislation. But doing so would run into three problems, from Trump’s point of view. First, Congress might balk. Second, at minimum an attempt to pass legislation would require hearings, in which the weakness of the administration’s arguments would become obvious. Third, one of the reasons Trump loves tariffs is that he gets to issue decrees at will, none of this pesky nonsense of consulting with the legislative branch; having to follow the Constitution would spoil his fantasies of omnipotence.

So here we go again, with another round of tariffs that will probably be ruled illegal some months from now.

Why doesn’t Trump just back down? After all, the tariffs aren’t achieving their stated objectives. Remember how Trump was going to revive US manufacturing?

The tariffs are also deeply unpopular, with an overwhelming majority of Americans believing, rightly, that they have raised prices:

But for Trump, backing off on the tariffs would amount to admitting failure. And if you believe he’s going to do that, I have a quick, easy victory over Iran you might want to buy.