The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today ruled in a 2-1 decision to reverse a lower court finding that Donald Trump did not have the authority to raise Section 232 tariffs on Turkish steel from 25 percent to 50 percent.
In the ruling, the court recognized a president’s broad authority to act under Section 232 based on national security concerns, including the ability to adjust tariffs levels. The court also ruled that there was a “rational basis” for increasing the tariffs on Turkish imports, as the country was flagged in the Secretary of Commerce’s initial report as a major source of imported steel that should be considered for increased duties.
“The president did not depart from the [US Commerce Department] secretary's finding of a national-security threat; indeed, the president specifically adhered to the secretary's underlying finding of the target capacity-utilization level that was the rationale for the predicate threat finding,” the court said in its filing.
“We do not address other circumstances that would present other issues about presidential authority to adjust initially taken actions without securing a new report with a new threat finding from the secretary.”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Jimmie Reyna affirmed the initial decision from the US Court of International Trade's (CIT), and said that “discretionary authority Congress granted the president under Section 232 is temporally limited and that the president in this has case exceeded that authority.”
Importers of Turkish steel who that brought the original case have 45 days to petition for rehearing or for en banc review, or otherwise, 90 days to file petitions for Supreme Court review. Importers initially appealed the increase and last year, the CIT found that Trump violated Section 232’s timing provisions, and also that importers’ equal protection rights were violated.