Name: Trump: Alternatives will be used to impose new tariffs | DW News
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US President Donald Trump wants to impose a 10% global tariff on America's trading partners after the Supreme Court struck out most of his previous levies as illegal.

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Trump said the 6 to 3 ruling left him deeply disappointed and accused the Supreme Court of being swayed by foreign interests.

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The president has vowed to deploy new methods to impose tariffs that will not require approval, including a sweeping new duty in all foreign trading partners ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs.

Michael Komodowski joins me now from Washington.

Misha, you have been following this story throughout the day.

As expected, this decision did not sit well with the president.

What else did he say at the press briefing?

President Trump lashed out after the Supreme Court blocked his emergency law tariffs.

And now he plans to sign an executive order imposing a 10% tariff on all countries replacing the tariffs that were struck down.

Praised the conservative justices who dissented, Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh, as brave and pro America.

At the same time, he blasted the Supreme Court majority as partisan and unpatriotic and even said that their families should be ashamed.

The president added that they are bowing to political pressure and foreign interests and announced he will not stop.

Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic.

They're so happy and they're dancing in the streets.

But they won't be dancing for long, that I can assure you.

But other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected.

What alternatives does he really have and how wide reaching would they be?

Well, again, President Trump announced plans to impose these 10% global tariffs under Section 122 in addition to existing tariffs.

The US has never used this authority before and the tariffs are scheduled to start next week.

This section 122 gives the President the power to put a tariff on imports up to 15% for up to 150 days.

It's meant to help if the United States is losing too much money in trade with other countries or if the dollar is in trouble after 150 days, the president needs congressional approval to keep the tariffs going and that's in question.

Now, has Trump offered any explanation on how he plans to handle the hundreds of billions of dollars already collected under these tariffs that have now been ruled unlawful?

The administration did not lay out a clear settled plan for what happens to the money already collected.

President Trump says tariff refunds issue could end in court for years and years and The Supreme Court majority opinion did not specify what should happen to the more than roughly $130 billion already collected.

And mind you, this number is not settled.

So leaves their refund question quite open.

The National Retail Federation here in the United States and the major anti tariff coalition are both calling for full fast and automatic refunds.

Washington correspondent Michael Kurodowski, thank you so much for your coverage today.

We want to take a closer look now at these developments and what they mean for international trade.

He heads the advisory firm the Chartered Institute of Export and International International Trade.

One set of tariffs is ruled illegal, another is slapped right on.

How is this 10% different from the so called Liberation Day levies?

Well, it's a, it's a different nuance and it's more wide ranging and it's short term.

The Liberation Day tariffs were meant to be for until they were negotiated away.

These tariffs, the 10%, are for a maximum of 150 days.

But I think what we're going to see now is a very muscular approach to negotiation by the Trump administration with third countries because they're going to launch now a series of trade investigations with a threat of much higher tariffs under the rules that the Supreme Court have said are legal.

In layman's terms, what will all of this mean for global trade?

The reality is we are going, we're seeing a continuation of what's been happening to global trade for the past three or four years.

Ongoing instability, uncertainty and disruption, which means price pressures for the consumers and the risk of availability and the shrinkflation for people on the shelves.

This is just another reason for businesses, particularly those in the eu, to look at a multi source, multi market approach.

We cannot be dependent on a single supply chain or a single nation and we cannot be dependent on a single nation as our marketplace.

Now that these old tariffs have been declared illegal, can importers reclaim the duties they paid since April of last year?

Yes, but, and that's the problem with so much in international trade.

So yes, they should be entitled to reclaim what has been judged to be illegal tariff payments.

However, the process for doing that and the fact that this is going to be tied up now in a whole bureaucratic process means that there's no clarity on this.

And I think the best thing that companies can do is to hold fast and wait until a little bit more clarity comes because it's very obvious that what President Trump is trying to do is to disrupt global supply chains to disrupt the global multilateral order and impose an America first program of activities.

We've seen businesses facing uncertainty.

And as a result, big businesses, companies like Stellantis and others, have made decisions to invest in the US to build their capabilities in the US because of these original set of tariffs.

And I'm certain that President Trump and the administration in Washington have no intent on leaving, taking their foot off the pedal, releasing the pressure, because they want more of that type of investment in the US to grow the manufacturing base in the US So do you think it's actually paying off?

Because the intent of these tariffs under the America first umbrella was the revival of American manufacturing?

Well, first, we've seen billions being generated as a result of the tariffs.

We have seen huge announcements from companies like Stellantis, Roche and others that they are going to invest significantly to grow manufacturing capability in the U.S.

but the, the transition between what have been decades of decline in US Manufacturing and impact of those investment announcements, there's a lag.

So what we've seen over the last quarter, in fact, last half a year, is a decline in U.S.

We've seen an increase in the trade deficit.

And these are factors that the Trump administration will be taking a long, hard look at as they seek to pursue that America first program.

Tariffs, and we've heard it many times, are Trump's favorite word zooming out a bit.

How big a blow is this ruling for his overall economic strategy that was so heavily reliant on tariffs?

Well, anyone who listened to his response this evening could see he's really angry at what's happened.

However, I don't think it was unexpected.

And the fact that they've come forward instantaneously with a new approach, the 10% tariff for the next hundred fifty days, and

they will be launching trade investigations on a whole bunch of products, a whole bunch of countries to try and exert more pressure and to apply differential tariffs on them.

And I'm sure over the coming weeks and months, there will be new approaches to impose tariffs, put pressure on countries.

Because what he's doing is using trade and tariffs as a geopolitical lever.

And he wants to secure bilateral trade arrangements to the advantage of the US to the advantage of US Consumers, to the advantage of US Manufacturing.

The way he goes about it may shift slightly.

The legal basis for his approach may shift slightly.

But what we can be sure of is that he is absolutely Clear eyed and determined to impose that America first agenda.

We just spoke to one of them, Marco Forgion, a director general of the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade.

Thank you so much for all those insights.

For the German reaction to the Supreme Court decision, our chief political editor, Michaela Kufner caught up with a CDU lawmaker and foreign policy spokesperson, Jurgen Hart at the party's conference.

Jurgen Hart, is this ruling a game changer for the way Donald Trump can conduct international politics?

And I think also from outside, it's difficult for us to comment a decision of the Supreme Court in a sovereign democratic country.

Constitutional questions are always in our core of the sovereignty of a state.

But looking to that, what might be the consequences?

I think about that Donald Trump's tax policy is very much based on the fact that he has a huge income from tariffs and that the trade relations of us to other regions, like European Union or India, for example, are very much driven by the tariff system regime.

And therefore, I think we also have to think about what is the consequence for us maybe a new momentum in trade negotiations with the US and also new momentum for some parts of the business for their future business in US or here in Europe.

Does this change the way you perceive Donald Trump can act?

I think Donald Trump was very much aware of not to have a defeat in in on the Supreme Court and not to be a majority against him in the Congress.

And there was a majority close to a majority against him in the Visuela question in the Senate.

And now there's a decision of the Supreme Court.