{"id":5910,"date":"2026-08-02T19:56:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/08\/02\/trump-is-determined-to-pursue-his-trade-war-and-he-may-be-difficult-to-stop\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:56:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:56:04","slug":"trump-is-determined-to-pursue-his-trade-war-and-he-may-be-difficult-to-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=5910","title":{"rendered":"Trump is determined to pursue his trade war \u2013 and he may be difficult to stop"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border-color:var(--article-border)\" class=\"dcr-18ovi4x\">\n<div class=\"dcr-2212fa\">\n<div style=\"--grid-area:media\" data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-i4c5ct\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1mhungh\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"cb3d7839-7181-4d7e-8b95-a80dcf8b875f\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a man speaks on a red carpet in factory\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/02958fcf45236506d02082d0c70d3e48fe9beec7\/0_0_5043_3593\/master\/5043.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"331.2998215348007\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">President Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at General Motors\u2019 Milford Proving Grounds on July 27, 2026 in Milford, Michigan.<\/span> Photograph: Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"cb3d7839-7181-4d7e-8b95-a80dcf8b875f\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">President Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at General Motors\u2019 Milford Proving Grounds on July 27, 2026 in Milford, Michigan.<\/span> Photograph: Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:border\" data-gu-name=\"border\" class=\"dcr-i4c5ct\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:headline\" data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-i4c5ct\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1mhungh\">\n<div class=\"dcr-jdss48\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-uwz9qz\">Trump is determined to pursue his trade war \u2013 and he may be difficult to stop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"dcr-6kl8nd\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1m9f89g\"><a rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/eduardo-porter\">Eduardo Porter<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:lines\" data-gu-name=\"lines\" class=\"dcr-i4c5ct\">\n<div class=\"dcr-lkx8q1\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:standfirst\" data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-i4c5ct\">\n<div class=\"dcr-jdt2z4\">\n<p>The president\u2019s minions have trawled the statutes to restore roadblocks to trade. The invocation of Smoot-Hawley looks especially dangerous<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:body\" data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-1fblwmu\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1mhungh\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Donald Trump may have found the killer weapon to punish countries at will: by imposing tariffs on their exports to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The president has been looking for a new tool since February, when the supreme court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/20\/supreme-court-tariffs-ruling-world-trade-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">struck down tariffs<\/a> he slapped on virtually all of America\u2019s trading partners based on the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, on the spurious grounds that the US faced a variety of national emergencies. It\u2019s become a parlor game among policy wonks to predict what new legal justification he would deploy to replace them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Well, it\u2019s probably not what you think. The round-robin tariffs imposed on everybody last Friday, under the argument that America\u2019s trading partners unfairly undercut US companies by importing things made with forced labor, has drawn a lot of attention. The blatantly specious accusation, sitting uneasily alongside America\u2019s own state-sanctioned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/24\/trump-tariffs-forced-labor-us-prisons\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">abuse of forced labor<\/a>, underscored how low Trump will stoop to get his way on trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">But those tariffs, imposed under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everycrsreport.com\/reports\/LSB11460.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">do not provide the carte blanche<\/a> Trump wants. Tariffs under this section are meant to retaliate against specific \u201cacts, policies and practices\u201d that are \u201cunreasonable\u201d and \u201cburden or restrict\u201d US companies. A blanket charge that every foreign country is enabling forced labor and thus hurting American business is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.piie.com\/blogs\/realtime-economics\/2026\/trumps-new-tariffs-over-forced-labor-are-unlikely-survive-court?utm_source=update-newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=piie-insider\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">unlikely to fly in court<\/a>. The whole strategy can be challenged as \u201carbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law\u201d or as \u201cunsupported by substantial evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The truly menacing precedent comes from Trump\u2019s decision, made the Monday before the worldwide forced labor tariffs came into play, to foist a 50% tariff on imports from Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The White House\u2019s pretext is Canadian discrimination against American dairy, booze and cars, which, paradoxically, came about as retaliation against Trump\u2019s original barrage of tariffs last year. Sly observers, however, have pointed to Trump\u2019s threat to punish Canada for the forest-fire smoke that wafted into the US. Maybe the new duties are meant to soften Canada as talks get under way to renew the USMCA North American trade pact, or to convince Canadians to become America\u2019s 51st state. Or just because \u201ctariff\u201d is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ExWLTayuuzs&amp;t=6s\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a pretty word<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The authority Trump invoked to attack Canada is ominous: section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which is the law that choked global trade in the 1930s and helped sink the world into the Great Depression. Section 338 is particularly dangerous because it offers cover for the president to slap trade levies on whatever country he wants under some fairly hazy arguments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Specifically, it grants the president authority to retaliate against countries that do anything to put the United States \u201cat a disadvantage compared with the commerce of any foreign country\u201d. As soon as the president decides this is going on, he is authorized to \u201cdeclare such new or additional rate or rates of duty as he shall determine will offset such burden or disadvantage\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Until Trump, section 338 was never invoked to impose tariffs. It was mostly used as leverage, to guarantee that other countries treated American products the same as imports from anywhere else. If some country offered preferential access to a neighbor or ally, the US could demand the same terms, or else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">This principle is now called \u201cmost favored nation treatment,\u201d which is central to multinational trade rules enforced by the World Trade Organization. Trump doesn\u2019t care about such niceties, though. He has a more destructive agenda in mind. And the statute appears to give him semantic wiggle room. He is determined to pursue his trade war. With such a sprawling mandate, he may be difficult to stop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">America\u2019s trading partners were elated in February when a 6-3 majority on the court, including two justices appointed by Trump, ruled against his use of the 1977 IEEPA to impose tariffs at will. It was close, though.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The court has shown an almost unbelievable deference to the president. It didn\u2019t object to Trump\u2019s spurious invocation of national emergencies \u2013 a \u201cpublic health crisis\u201d due to illegal drugs from Canada, Mexico and China; trade deficits that \u201cled to the hollowing out\u201d of American manufacturing; something something because Brazil jailed its ex-president Jair Bolsonaro for plotting a coup. The justices merely objected to his use of the statute to impose taxes, which are the preserve of Congress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The executive has gotten away with similarly spurious arguments before. In 1975 President Richard Nixon was allowed to invoke the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 to slap tariffs on a zipper company from Japan, a country with which the US was not at war. Trump\u2019s lawyers, in fact, argued before the supreme court that this precedent supported the president\u2019s emergency powers to raise tariffs on anybody under IEEPA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Though Trump lost, his menace to the world remains. Since February his minions have trawled through legal statutes across American history to restore roadblocks to trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Balance of payments crises don\u2019t exist any more. Still, fresh from his supreme court loss, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on everybody by invoking section 122 of the 1974 act, which allows for tariffs to prevent such imbalances. The use of the law is so ridiculous that Trump\u2019s own lawyers, in the IEEPA case, argued before the supreme court justices that section 122 could not be used as a substitute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In 1974, when the dollar\u2019s exchange rate was fixed, a balance of payments crisis could happen when inflows of money from abroad couldn\u2019t cover the trade deficit, forcing the government to sell foreign assets to plug the gap and preserve the exchange rate. These days the dollar floats. If too little money is coming in, it falls, making it cheaper and thus more attractive for foreigners to buy dollar assets, bringing things back into balance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Fortunately, the balance of payments tariffs had a statutory limit of 150 days. But Trump has tried other stuff too. Section 301 has been used many times before, including by Trump against China in his first term to penalize it for its industrial subsidies, which give its producers an unfair leg up. Trump has also relied on section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act to put levies on steel, aluminum, lumber, semiconductors and autos on specific grounds about protecting national security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">None of these authorities, however, grant him the unrestrained blanket power that could be his under section 338. Let\u2019s see what he does with it.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\n<li class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Eduardo Porter is a journalist focused on economics and politics. He writes the newsletter Being There on Substack<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/trump-tariffs\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Trump tariffs<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/business\/tariffs\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Tariffs<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/comment\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">comment<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Trump%20is%20determined%20to%20pursue%20his%20trade%20war%20%E2%80%93%20and%20he%20may%20be%20difficult%20to%20stop&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/aug\/02\/trump-tariffs-weapon?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Faug%2F02%2Ftrump-tariffs-weapon&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/aug\/02\/trump-tariffs-weapon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:right-column\" data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1a2ertn\">\n<div class=\"dcr-85647g\">\n<section class=\"dcr-ro9mvu\"><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at General Motors\u2019 Milford Proving Grounds on July 27, 2026 in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}