Closing post
Time to wrap up….
A US trade court has ruled Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs regime illegal, after several lawsuits argued the President has exceeded his authority, left US trade policy dependent on his whims and unleashed economic chaos.
The three-judge panel said they were not passing judgment on the “wisdom or likely effectiveness of the president’s use of tariffs as leverage”. Instead, their ruling centred on whether the trade levies had been legally applied in the first place. Their use was “impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it”, the decision explained.
Financial markets cheered the court’s ruling, with the US dollar rallying against a basket of other currencies, although it has since pared back these gains. Stocks in rose the US on Thursday.
However investors are still weighing whether the ruling from the trade court in New York will be enough to block Trump from pursuing his trade tariffs.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank think if the court ruling is upheld, Trump could pursue his other tariffs through the same means. They wrote: “If the ruling did remain in place, preventing the use of tariffs under IEEPA, one option for the administration would be to expand the use of other tariff instruments, like the Section 232 on national security grounds, which have been used for autos, steel and aluminium tariffs.”
Trump has claimed authority to set trade tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or “IEEPA”. The law has historically been used to impose sanctions on enemies of the US or freeze their assets. Trump is the first US president to use it to impose tariffs.
But the Court of International Trade in New York has said the US Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries, and that is not overridden by the president’s emergency powers.
In other news:
The UK has said it wants to accelerate negotiations to conclude a trade deal with Donald Trump
White House adviser Kevin Hassett has said three more trade deals are nearly done, and that the trade court ruling would not affect trade negotiations
Rachel Reeves has said the government will push big pension funds to invest in British assets
Elon Musk has said he will leave his role in the Trump administration
More than 60,000 low-paid workers have received back pay worth £7.4m after their employers failed to meet the legal minimum wage level.
Some of the UK’s most prominent employers were caught out paying below the minimum wage, following investigations by HM Revenue & Customs.
Pizza Express, British Airways and the outsourcing firm Capita were among 518 businesses forced to pay wages that fell short of the minimum wage over a period of years.
German-owned supermarket chain Lidl and Halfords were also on a “name and shame” list of culprits issued by the department for business and trade.
Capita was the worst offender after it failed to pay £1.5m to 5,543 workers.
The investigations were conducted between 2015 and 2022, but have only recently been completed and back-payments agreed.
Last year the previous Conservative administration said a separate group of 524 businesses had failed to pay the minimum wage affecting 172,000 workers, giving rise to a £16m back-pay bill.
Minister for Employment Rights, Justin Madders said: “There is no excuse for employers to undercut their workers, and we will continue to name companies who break the law and don’t pay their employees what they are owed.”
The National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over rose in April from £11.44 an hour to £12.21 an hour.
