Trade deal with India will stand, says Trump

TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump said the recently concluded framework for an interim trade deal with India would stand notwithstanding the Supreme Court ruling that his liberation day tariffs are illegal, even as he announced he would use other provisions of law to charge a "10% global tariff over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.”

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“It is fair deal, they will pay tariffs and we will not be paying any tariffs,” Trump said at a White House news conference after the SC setback, while asserting that relations with India are “fantastic.” The U.S President appeared to be referring to the administration's “Plan B,” which provides narrower pathways for tariffs, for example, Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows tariffs on national security grounds, as Trump did during his first term with steel and aluminum. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 also authorizes targeted tariffs in response to unfair trade practices.

Both mechanisms involve procedural requirements and substantive limits that make broad, across-the-board tariffs more difficult, but an angry Trump, furious over the SC setback, said the administration would go down that route to collect even more tariff revenue.

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Trump repeatedly lashed out at the three conservative justices of the SC for teaming up with the three liberal justices to strike down the tariffs, calling them a “disgrace.” He said, “foreign countries that are ripping us off are ecstatic and dancing in the streets,” while warning “but not for long” because other alternatives would be used to impose tariffs.

Trump also cast aspersions on attorneys who represented U.S. companies and trade associations which fought the tariff case calling them “foreign country centric.” The lead attorney in the case is Indian-American Neal Katyal, who was the acting additional solicitor general in the Obama administration.