The decision to declare the majority of U.S. tariffs illegal by a United States appeals court, announced on August 29, has been quickly met with a response from the American president. Through Truth Social, Trump declared this Monday that, should the levies be outlawed, all the investment derived from the trade agreements, which he estimates at about 15 trillion euros, “would be canceled immediately,” and therefore “we would become a third world country.”
The appeals court, which Trump labels as “radical leftists,” assessed that the U.S. president overstepped his powers when imposing the tariffs, applied in accordance with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). For the moment, the tariffs deemed illegal will remain in place until October, after which date the Republican administration can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The appeals court ruling comes just days after Trump reached an agreement with the European Commission on tariff matters. In fact, last week, Europe proposed a “zero tariff” policy on industrial products from the United States, framed as a strategy to preserve the European automotive sector’s access to the North American market and avoid a protectionist escalation.
