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Tariffs back in force after appeals court ruling
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A federal appeals court Thursday temporarily restored President Donald Trump’s power to impose tariffs after a district court issued a nationwide injunction Wednesday curtailing that authority.
The initial rulings Wednesday by the U.S. Court of International Trade put on hold most of the “Liberation Day” tariffs, imposed by executive order in April. Certain tariffs on cars, steel, and aluminum would remain in effect.
The rulings issued Wednesday were paused by an order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, an injunction by the District Court for the District of Columbia preventing tariff collection is also being appealed by the Trump administration to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That injunction, which doesn’t go into effect for 14 days, applies only to the two companies that sued.
The rulings from the Court of International Trade came from a lawsuit filed by five small businesses that import goods from tariff-targeted countries and another filed by 12 states.
Those rulings were paused by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In its ruling, the court stated: “The request for an immediate administrative stay is granted to the extent that the judgments and the permanent injunctions entered by the Court of International Trade in these cases are temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers.”
The court also granted the government’s motion to consolidate the appeals of the rulings in its order.
CPA decision-makers in business and industry, in a survey released in March by the AICPA, said that the potential effect of tariffs was one reason for a sharp decline in economic sentiment. Nearly 60% said they expected tariffs to have a negative effect on their businesses.
The next quarterly survey of those finance executives is expected to be released late next week.
The AICPA maintains several tariff-related resources:
- Main resource page on navigating tariffs.
- FAQs on international tariffs.
- Actions finance teams can take on tariffs.
- Broadridge Advisor tariff resource downloads (Personal Financial Planning Section member exclusive).
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.
