US Supreme Court reverses Trump’s tariffs

Washington. The US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing a series of tariffs that disrupted global trade.

That ruling blocks a key tool that the president had used to impose his economic and diplomatic agenda.

The highest court, with a conservative majority, decided by six votes to three that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) “does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.”

This decision refers to customs duties presented as “reciprocal” by Donald Trump, but not to those applied to specific sectors such as automobiles, steel or aluminum, which remain.

The Supreme Court’s action could have repercussions on the global economy for years.

Trump began using tariffs during his first term (2017-2021) as a lever for pressure and negotiation, but upon returning to power, in January 2025, he immediately announced that he was going to use the IEEPA to impose new tariffs on practically all of his trading partners.

In addition to trade-related tariffs, Trump enacted special customs tariffs on important partners such as Mexico, Canada and China over illicit drug flows and migration.

“If Congress had intended to grant the distinct and extraordinary power to impose tariffs through the IEEPA, it would have done so expressly, as it has done systematically in other tariff statutes,” the high court explains.

The decision confirms previous lower court rulings that the tariffs Trump imposed were illegal.

A lower commercial court had ruled in May that Trump overstepped his authority with widespread levies and blocked most of them from taking effect, but that outcome had been put on hold pending the government’s appeal.