President Donald Trump's original plan for addressing the purported threat posed by the longstanding U.S. trade deficit, which the Supreme Court rejected in February, involved declaring an imaginary emergency to justify tariffs under a statute that does not authorize them. His backup plan, which he revealed immediately after that decision, avoids the second difficulty but not the first one.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the 1977 law that Trump cited when he announced his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs last year, does not mention import taxes and had never been used to impose them. By contrast, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, the provision Trump cited after his Supreme Court defeat, does authorize tariffs in certain circumstances.
