Under President Trump, the tariffs keep on changing.
The latest shift arrived this week after a federal trade court ruled that the current centerpiece of his trade strategy — a 10 percent tax on most imports from around the world — exceeded the president’s authority under the law.
For now, that across-the-board duty remains in place, with an appeal getting underway. Still, the legal battle, which is far from finished, adds to the uncertainty that has plagued businesses and consumers throughout Mr. Trump’s global trade war.
Sorting out the tariffs that currently apply (or don’t) generally has boiled down to tracking the status of a handful of high-stakes lawsuits.
Many of the president’s tariffs — the sky-high rates that he first imposed on what became known as “Liberation Day” last year — were struck down by the Supreme Court in February. The administration has begun the work to refund the money collected under those duties, which totals around $166 billion, and the first checks are expected to arrive as soon as Monday.
This bucket of tariffs includes the country-by-country rates that Mr. Trump first announced to combat the illicit sale of drugs, as well as those he imposed on a “reciprocal” basis in response to what he described as persistent trade imbalances.
Other tariffs applied by Mr. Trump are more legally settled, yet have shifted up or down with some frequency as the White House has sought to accomplish its economic goals — or lessen the consequences of the president’s policies. These include the tariffs that the president applied to products like cars and steel on national security grounds, using a legal provision known as Section 232.
Yet much remains uncertain about Mr. Trump’s next steps, and his tariffs are expected to change considerably — again — in the coming months. Using another set of authorities, known as Section 301, the administration has opened investigations into the trade practices of dozens of countries. Mr. Trump’s goal is to revive the sort of tariffs that he had in place before the Supreme Court sided against him.
At the same time, Mr. Trump has continued to lob new tariff threats against countries, including those in Europe, while promising in general terms to double down on his strategy even in the face of court setbacks.
“We always do it a different way,” Mr. Trump said this week when asked about his latest loss. “We get one ruling, and we do it a different way.”
