Trump Pursues New Import Taxes         04/28 06:22

   The administration is scrambling to put more durable tariffs in place to 
keep revenue flowing into the U.S. Treasury and to shore up the president's 
protectionist wall around the American economy.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- When the Supreme Court killed his favorite tariffs in 
February, President Donald Trump promptly rolled out temporary import taxes to 
replace them. But those stopgap levies expire in less than three months.

   Now the administration is scrambling to put more durable tariffs in place to 
keep revenue flowing into the U.S. Treasury and to shore up the president's 
protectionist wall around the American economy.

   Starting this week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will begin 
hearings in two investigations that are expected to lead to a new round of U.S. 
tariffs -- taxes paid by importers in the United States and usually passed on 
via higher prices to consumers who are already fed up with the high cost of 
living.

   Trump's newest tariff push is sure to face more challenges in court but is 
likely to prove sturdier than the one the Supreme Court tossed out.

   First up is a hearing Tuesday and Wednesday into whether 60 economies -- 
from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports -- do enough to 
prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.

   "For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete 
against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from 
the scourge of forced labor," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in 
March. The administration could punish scofflaws with new tariffs.

   Then, next week, the administration will hold hearings on whether 16 U.S. 
trading partners -- including China, the European Union and Japan -- are 
overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a 
disadvantage. The economies being investigated account for 70% of U.S. imports, 
according to Erica York of the Tax Foundation. Again, the probe could result in 
new tariffs.

   Most major economies, including China, the EU and Japan, are on both lists.

   Trump's top trade official insists he won't prejudge the investigations

   The administration has brought the cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act 
of 1974, which authorizes tariffs and other sanctions against countries found 
to engage in "unjustifiable," "unreasonable" or "discriminatory" trade 
practices.

   U.S. Trade Representative Greer, who is overseeing the investigations, has 
insisted he won't prejudge them.

   But importers and foreign countries have doubts the process will be fair. 
After all, Trump's Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, did not wait for the 
investigations to be completed to proclaim that the U.S. government will 
replace its original tariff revenues with new import taxes, including ones to 
be imposed under Section 301. The president himself has said that new tariffs 
"are going to get us more money.''

   "If you believe the Treasury secretary and the president, then the cake is 
already baked," said Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute's Center 
for Trade Policy Studies. "These investigations will result in tariffs that 
approximate what the Supreme Court overruled in February.''

   On Feb. 20, the high court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by 
invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose 
double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth. Trump had used the act 
to plaster taxes on imports with eager abandon. For example, he conjured up a 
new tariff on Canada (though he never actually imposed it) because he didn't 
like a Canadian television ad criticizing his trade policies.

   He used the threat of IEEPA tariffs to strong-arm top U.S. trading partners 
-- including the EU, Japan and South Korea -- into accepting lopsided trade 
agreements. The levies also brought in a lot of revenue -- $166 billion -- 
before the Supreme Court shut them down, ruling that IEEPA couldn't be used to 
impose tariffs. Now the federal government must refund money to importers who 
paid those tariffs.

   Tariffs remain Trump's go-to

   Trump had a handy way to quickly recoup some of the lost revenue -- which 
had been expected to hit $1.6 trillion over the next decade -- at least 
temporarily. Section of 122, also of Trade Act of 1974, allows the president to 
impose global tariffs as high as 15% for up to 150 days.

   The administration wasted no time. Two days after the Supreme Court 
decision, it slapped 10% Section 122 tariffs on imports. Trump said he'd raise 
the levies to the maximum 15% but hasn't.

   The clock runs out on those tariffs July 24. Congress could extend them. But 
lawmakers have little enthusiasm for approving what amounts to a big tax as 
November's midterm elections approach: American voters are already furious 
about the high prices, for which tariffs are at least partly to blame.

   Section 301 offers another opportunity to replicate the the protectionist 
impact of the IEEPA tariffs. There are no limits on the size of Section 301 
tariffs. They expire after four years but can be extended.

   Perhaps best of all, from the Trump administration's perspective after its 
Supreme Court defeat, Section 301 tariffs withstood legal challenges when the 
president used them in his first term to pound China in a dispute over 
Beijing's sharp-elbowed policies to promote its own tech companies.

   Any new 301 tariffs are sure to be challenged again in court. But judges 
might not throw them out.

   "Even if it is a veiled -- or less-than-veiled -- attempt to reinitiate the 
IEEPA tariffs, he still has the cover of the process itself,'' said trade 
lawyer Joyce Adetutu, a partner at law firm Vinson & Elkins.

   Importer calls investigation a "sham''

   Critics have latched onto the speed with which Trump's latest investigations 
are proceeding. Imposing the Section 301 tariffs against China in the 
president's first term took nearly a year of investigation and public comment. 
If the latest investigations produce new tariffs in time to replace the 
expiring Section 122 levies, the process will have taken less than half that 
long.

   "It's such a short timeframe,'' said Kenya Davis, a partner at the law firm 
Boies Schiller Flexner who has done pro bono work on human trafficking and 
forced labor. "It's so condensed that it doesn't make a lot of sense that they 
can do it that quickly.''

   Importers bracing for the return of painful tariffs can take some comfort in 
knowing that Trump's Section 301 tariffs likely won't be as erratic as his 
IEEPA levies. He has to follow procedures before imposing them.

   "One of the reasons Trump used IEEPA is because it was just a complete blank 
slate'' -- or seemed to be before the Supreme Court ruling, Cato's Lincicome 
said, describing it as "a little tariff switch in the Oval Office that Trump 
could flip on and off anytime he wants; he wakes up in the morning and he 
doesn't like a Canadian television commercial, he flips the switch ... You 
really can't do that with 301.''