Trump Trade War faces a legal challenge as a business, states maintain that his prices have exceeded his power

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump is carrying out a trade war without obtaining the approval of the congress: he declared a national emergency to snap import taxes – price – On almost all countries of the world.

The president is now confronted with at least seven prosecutions which argue that he went too far and affirmed the power he does not have.

A panel of three judges from the American Court of International Trade, which specifically deals with civil proceedings involving international commerce law, held the first hearing on challenges on Tuesday morning in New York. Five small businesses ask the court to block the radical import taxes that Trump announced on April 2-“Liberation Day,” he called.

Declaring that the enormous and long-term trade deficits of the United States add up a national emergency, Trump invoked the 1977 law on the Economic Emergency Powers (IEPPA) and has deployed 10% tariffs on many countries. He imposed higher prices – up to 50% – “reciprocal” from countries that sold more goods in the United States than the United States has sold them. (Trump then suspended these higher prices for 90 days.)

Trump’s prices have shaken the world markets and raised fears to disrupt trade and slow down American and global economic growth.

Jeffrey Schwab, principal lawyer and director of disputes at the Liberty Justice non -profit center, said the president exceeded the authority of the law. “This law does not say anything about giving the president the power of prices,” said Schwab, who represents small businesses. “This does not say the word price.”

In their complaint, companies also call Trump’s urgency “a fruit of his own imagination: trade deficits, which have persisted for decades without causing economic damage, are not an emergency.” The United States has, in fact, managed a trade deficit – the gap between exports and imports – with the rest of the world for 49 consecutive years, through good and good times.

But the Trump administration argues that the courts approved the urgent use of prices by President Richard Nixon in an economic crisis in 1971. The Nixon administration managed to cite its authority under the 1917 enemy of trading, which preceded and provided part of the legal language used in IEPPA.

The legal battle against Trump’s prices has created unusual bed companions, uniting states led by democratic governors with libertarian groups – including Liberty Justice Center – who often seek to cancel the government’s government regulations. A dozen states brought an action against Trump’s prices before the New York Commercial Court. An audience in this case is scheduled for May 21.

Kathleen Claussen, professor and trade in trade law at Georgetown Law, said that the hearing on Tuesday and another planned for the States trial in the coming weeks will probably set the tone for legal battles on the upcoming prices. If the court agrees to block the prices under the law on emergency economic powers, the Trump administration will certainly appeal. “It probably strikes me, this is probably something that must be decided by the Supreme Court,” she said.

And if the cases go to Supreme CourtAccording to legal experts, judges may use conservative legal doctrines they have cited to curb the government’s powers claimed by the Democratic Administration Joe Biden to eliminate or limit the prices imposed by Trump, a Republican.

The American Constitution gives the power to impose taxes – including prices – Congress. But over the years, legislators have given up power over trade policy to the White House, paving the way for the vast use of Trump prices.

Some legislators now want to recover part of the authority they have abandoned.

The republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and the Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, for example, have introduced legislation that would force the presidents to justify new prices in the congress. The legislators would then have 60 days to approve the prices. Otherwise, they would expire.

But their proposal seems to have little chance of becoming law, given the deference of the legislators of most Republicans towards Trump and the president’s right of veto. “This train has left the station,” said trade lawyer Warren Maruyama, who was a general lawyer for the office of the US trade representative in the administration of President George W. Bush.

For the moment, many American companies have trouble dealing with Trump’s prices, which have raised the average price of America at the highest level since 1934 – even after a Commercial truce with China Was announced on Monday, according to the Budget Laboratory of the University of Yale.

Victor Schwartz of New York has spent the last 39 years building a business in importing wine and spirits of small producers around the world. The prices hit your business hard. Its customers want regional wines from around the world, so it cannot simply move to American vintages. And the state forces him to display prices a month in advance, so it is difficult to follow the rates constantly evolving from Trump.

His company – Selections VOS – is one of the five complainants of Tuesday’s audience. “It’s a race against time,” he said. “Are we going to pass through?” I’m not sure exactly. ”