That President Trump likes tariffs should come as no surprise. He implemented them during his first term and, during his candidacy for his current term, he promised to implement more. Two things have surprised most people: the size of his proposed tariffs and the policy flip-flops in implementing the tariffs.
When it comes to tariffs, I am neither a hawk nor a dove. They
can be a legitimate component of any country’s trade and strategic policies.
Because they increase the cost of goods imported into a country, the immediate
effect is a direct tax on the company that imports the goods. In the short term,
a company may swallow some of the tariff cost, but after time, they will
increase prices to cover their added costs. Thus, consumers bear the final cost
of tariffs, not corporations, and certainly not the countries where the goods
first came from.
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says,
“Congress shall have the Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and
Excises, . . .but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout
the United States. The constitution clearly states that Congress has this
power, not the Judicial or Executive branches of government. How, then, can
President Trump (or any president) unilaterally make tariff decisions?
Congress delegated that power to the President under certain
circumstances. One of those circumstances is a national emergency, as set forth
in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). A
Democratic Congress passed the legislation, and Jimmy Carter signed it into
law. Its intent was to clarify and restrict presidential power
during times of national emergency.
President Trump, in his first term, used IEEPA eleven times
to invoke national emergency declarations. In 2019, President Trump used for
the first time a national emergency declaration to invoke tariffs. President
Biden invoked IEEPA after Russia invaded Ukraine in order to impose sanctions on
Russian individuals and entities. President Trump has again invoked IEEPA to
justify tariffs on almost all imports.
I cannot imagine what a business that imports goods has been
going through these last few weeks as President Trump announces tariffs,
changes what goods they apply to, pauses them, brings them back on, develops an
additional set of tariffs that seem almost random in their country specifics,
lets those go into effect, and thirteen hours later pauses them for ninety days.
No manager can make rational long-term decisions with so much chaos, and so
they must make short-term decisions they hope will limit their financial
exposure. We will never know how much damage President Trump’s feckless
yo-yoing tariffs have already done to our economy. The net decline in stock
values suggests it has been large.
Congress has a remedy available that can monitor and modify
any president’s use of IEEPA to justify tariffs. They can change the law. They
can restrict what this president and any future president can do when they
claim a national emergency. Congress can require any tariff enacted under IEEPA
becomes void if not approved by Congress within (say) sixty days. They can
require that Congress must approve ahead of implementation any tariff enacted
under IEEPA in order for it to go into effect.
One such approach is the bipartisan “Trade Review Act of
2025” introduced in both the House and Senate. It does not go as far as I would
like in limiting presidential power, but it does require Congressional approval
of unilateral tariffs (or increases) proposed by the executive branch. The
president must notify Congress within 48 hours of any proposed tariffs or
increases, explain why they are necessary, and assess the tariff’s impact on
consumers and businesses. Congress has sixty days to approve the tariff or it
must end. Congress can also vote to end the tariff early.
This proposed law is a reasonable first step in clawing back
power from the presidency that was intended to belong to Congress. While it
made sense to give presidents flexibility to respond to genuine emergencies,
the executive branch has abused emergency declarations to unilaterally impose
actions without Congressional approval.
Over the last month, we have seen the chaos and costs of
allowing national-emergency declarations to justify the whims of one person.
What President Trump is doing now will only be expanded upon by future
presidents, regardless of party. The time to stop these practices is now.
President Trump will surely veto the bill, which means it
will require a two-thirds vote from each house of Congress to override the
veto. Democrats and a few Republicans cannot do this on their own. It requires
the Republican leadership to push the bill through.
And because this bipartisan bill is now offered, and
Republican leadership combined with Democrats can put a stop to the madness, Republicans
now own all of President Trump’s tariff decisions. Because they can curtail
President Trump's tariff powers, a decision to not rein him in is a tacit
approval of his tariffs. We need to remind every representative and senator,
Republican and Democrat, that not making a change means approving of the
current situation.
