U.S. Supreme Court turns away challenge to Trump's tariffs on steel imports (updated)

Dorman Products

27/03/2023 14:54

(Adds background, paragraphs 4-13)
    By John Kruzel
       WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court
on Monday declined to hear a challenge to U.S. steel import
tariffs imposed in 2018 under former President Donald Trump - a
policy he touted as defending American national security - and
largely maintained by President Joe Biden.
    The justices turned away an appeal by a group of U.S.-based
steel importers of a lower court's ruling rejecting their
challenge to the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs
under a Cold War-era trade law.
    At issue in the case was whether the findings in a 2018
report to Trump that recommended he impose steel tariffs were
subject to second-guessing by courts under federal
administrative law.
    The report by then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross determined
that excessive steel imports were threatening U.S. national
security, with the imports causing domestic steel plants to
close and undermining the U.S. "ability to meet national
security production requirements in a national emergency." In
March 2018, Trump ordered a 25% tariff on steel imports from
most nations. He also ordered a 10% tariff on aluminum imports.
    Several companies that import steel products, including
subsidiaries of Colmar, Pennsylvania-based Dorman Products Inc
 DORM.O  and Turkish steel producer Borusan Mannesmann
 BRSAN.IS , sued in the U.S. Court of International Trade. They 
argued that the Ross report was "arbitrary and capricious" under
a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.
    The trade court in 2021 ruled against the steel importers,
finding that the Ross report could not be challenged in court
because it was not a "final agency action." 
    On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
broke with the trade court, ruling that the Ross findings did
constitute a final agency action. However, the Federal Circuit
found that the report's findings were not subject to court
review under administrative law and that the policy otherwise
complied with federal law.
    The Biden administration, which has largely maintained
Trump's tariff policy, urged the justices not to take up the
appeal. Trump is a Republican and Biden a Democrat.
    In imposing the tariffs, Trump invoked Section 232 of the
Trade Act of 1962, which allows a U.S. president to restrict
imports of goods critical to national security. Exemptions were
granted to some countries, but the tariffs became an irritant in
foreign relations including with European allies. 
    Trump at the time said the tariffs were necessary for
national security to maintain healthy domestic production, and
said the United States was committed to building its ships,
planes and other military equipment with American steel. 
    During his presidency, Trump rattled the world trade order
by imposing unilateral tariffs to combat what he called unfair
trade practices by China, the European Union and other major
trading partners of the United States. China and some other
countries retaliated by imposing tariffs on U.S. goods.
    The Supreme Court last year refused to hear a separate
challenge by steel companies to Trump's 2018 decision to double
tariffs on steel imports from Turkey, also on national security
grounds.

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 (Reporting by John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting
by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
 ((John.Kruzel@thomsonreuters.com))