Name: Trump's tariffs are illegal unless Congress approves : Analysis
Uploaded: 2026-02-21T23:02:21.000Z
Duration: 5 min 28 s
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Will Hutton is a political economist joining us from Oxford in the UK So you may have heard there the statement by governors, governors against a president, a president accusing judges of being disloyal.

Adverbs of degree

Just how stable a trading partner does the US Appear to be to other countries, especially in Europe?

Adverbs of manner

Well, the terms of the trade are obviously unstable, but you have to remember that the United States is that one quarter of world gdp.

You need to have a market presence in the United States to kind of validate your company.

So, I mean, people, one way or another have to devise workarounds or mechanisms to deal with all this kind of uncertainty and instability.

I think the fact that it's not going to be a 10% tariff for just 150 days and quite likely that it won't be congressional approval at the end of 150 days, it's kind of unambiguous good news.

And it's good news for South Africa who are facing 50% tariffs.

It's good news for the Europeans who are facing 15% tariffs now, 10% tariffs.

It's good news for a lot of countries in the global south who are facing extraordinary tariffs, including China.

The open question is to what extent will the president look for kind of particular countries and particular sectors where he can use other provisions and other trade acts to impose tariffs, but it won't be the kind of blanket Liberation Day tariffs that we saw last April.

It's going to be much more slow moving and tricky for him.

Well, let me jump in then say, though, haven't those very specific tariffs already been used to target certain sectors, including in Europe?

So it's not a case that, or correct me if I'm wrong, that all tariffs come down to 10% because the Supreme Court ruling just applies to those tariffs imposed emergency.

So, yeah, of 1977, those are the, those are the tariffs.

But the Europeans, under the European Trade Agreement, kind of what it does is it says that no tariffs on any American exports to the US including on cars, actually, which the Europeans did have a special 10% tariff on cars.

And reciprocally, there was going to be a flat rate tariff of 15%.

I think there was one sector, aluminium, where actually there was a potential for Trump to try to do something special.

But that was the basic, that's the basic framing.

That's the basic frame of the deal, does that deal still have the same appeal as it did to Europeans?

Now that the whole tariffs, rules and regime is changing, will the European Parliament still go ahead with ratification or will they at least ask for some concessions or amendments?

I'd be surprised if the European Parliament ratifies this deal next week, first of all.

And actually, why should they give lots of trade concessions and tariff concessions to the United States in exchange for not very much, actually, if there's not going to be kind of any, if the entire threat of high tariffs or selective tariffs has gone away.

I think they're going to want some really, some real guarantees from Trump on kind of how he's going to behave kind of subsequently.

And he's not going to, they're not going to get them in particular.

I mean, using tariffs to kind of threaten countries around Greenland and all that's gone out of the window.

So, you know, I mean, I think that the, I mean, I think the Europeans will want to kind of.

I would be very surprised if the European Parliament doesn't want to pause and actually have a look at kind of and just see how the, how this landscape is going to settle.

I'm glad you mentioned that because since you're also a political economist, let me, let me ask you a look at it from a slightly different angle.

As you mentioned, tariffs was a weapon, a leverage tool in the arsenal of Donald Trump's foreign policy approaches to issues from Greenland to who does business with Iran.

I mean, under the Emergency Powers act, he was using that to do it.

And the Supreme Court has been unambiguous.

That taxation, that tax right sits with Congress.

It's illegal to do it unless you get congressional kind of legislative support.

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