Name: SCOTUS says no to Trump's tariffs: What happens next? | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-21T23:02:30.000Z
Duration: 7 min 2 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Donald Trump is imposing a new 10% global tariff on America's trading partners after the Supreme Court ruled most of his previous levies were illegal.

Advanced passive voice

Trump sharply criticised the 6:3 ruling and accused the Supreme Court of being swayed by foreign interests.

It was hard for Donald Trump to hide his anger.

The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what's right for our country.

Despite the Supreme Court's ruling that many of his tariffs should be struck down, the President immediately promised more.

Today I will sign an order to impose a 10% global tariff under section 122.

Over and above are normal tariffs already being charged?

Within hours, Trump had signed that new 10% tariff order, which will last for an initial 150 days.

Analysts warn uncertainty is now on the rise.

We went from a certain environment of having high tariffs to to having an uncertain environment of having lower tariffs.

So, you know, the market is trying to digest.

Is this actually good news right now, or are we just going to be getting tariff news here and there again, as we did last year?

And that is one thing that investors do not like, is surprising news on policy that they don't expect.

There's also another issue following the Supreme Court ruling.

Big billions of dollars in US tariff collections could be subject to potential refunds.

The Supreme Court did not talk explicitly about the $175 billion in tariffs that could potentially be refunded.

On the other hand, the ruling today clearly does open that door for those refunds to be demanded.

This ruling is a massive blow to Donald Trump's administration.

But the fallout is causing confusion not the US but across the entire global trade network.

We're joined now by Rebecca Christie, a senior fellow at the Brussels based economic policy think tank.

With a little time to digest the decision and the reaction.

The highest court in the land says no to these tariffs.

There is no expectation right now that the tariffs will actually go away.

Rather, the question is what rationale will the Trump administration use next?

And how can businesses work in this environment, given that things are likely to be changing?

Trump says he's not giving up on the idea of charging non American companies access to this huge US market.

As you read his next plan, as best you can interpret it, is he on safer ground, do you think, or are we likely just to be heading for more challenges and more of this conversation.

Well, it's interesting the difference between the rhetoric and the reality.

Because the US Companies that sell these goods are the ones paying the tariffs.

It's not at all clear that refunds are on the table or ever will be.

And in the meantime, businesses have to decide how they're going to run things.

The tariffs are paid at the point when the goods cross into the US and they affect all sorts of things down the line.

The court decision did not strike down all of the tariffs that Trump has put in place since he started his second term.

Ok, let's put a pin in the reimbursement issue and go to uncertainty because that's what at least we know we have uncertainty.

What's been the reaction as best you can interpret it?

If one is certain and 10 is uncertain, where are we on this very unlearned scale that I put to you?

It's hard to quantify it because things are so uncertain.

The markets have priced in a fair amount of just chaos, frankly, when it comes to Trump administration policy.

I haven't seen a lot of incentive that this will move the needle.

At the same time, we saw Data that the U.S. economy slowed down in the fourth quarter.

And it's not at all clear that the growth the US has enjoyed despite the Trump administration's many disruptive policies, it's not at all clear that that is going to continue and that will be a much bigger problem than just the tariffs.

We've promised to go back to reimbursements and the possibility of those of all the interested parties, the U.S.

companies and the U.S. consumers who have already paid these tariffs.

Rebecca, how likely is it that that they will be reimbursed?

We probably will see many lawsuits from companies as the policy evolves, particularly companies that may feel they had to pay these more than other parts of the economy.

Consumers probably won't see any of this.

To the extent that companies recoup any of their costs, they will say, oh, this makes up for lost customers.

It's harder to bring prices down than it is to raise them.

And of course, lawsuits are expensive, too.

So it's not at all clear there's money to be made here.

It's more just a question of how do you react and cope with the damage?

You talked earlier about separating rhetoric from reality.

These the first attempt by Trump to impose these tariffs, he was promising more or less a gold mine for America.

If he's forced to move away from this, is America missing out on a great fortune?

A great fortune is probably overstating it, particularly because of the negative economic effects, particularly over time.

that would create a hole in the budget, particularly because the US doesn't have a very good handle on where to rein in spending right now.

It's much easier to increase your budget deficit than it is to bring it back, particularly when you don't have the growth that's reliable.

Rebecca Christie with the economic think tank Bruegel in Brussels, thanks so much for your time.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

SCOTUS says no to Trump's tariffs: What happens next? | DW News

stick

scale

immediately

negative