On June 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the Trump administration could continue collecting the 10% global tariff while the appeal is pending. This decision temporarily halts a previous ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade that deemed the tariff unlawful.
The ruling allows the continued collection of tariffs from two importing companies and the state of Washington, which had previously won in the lower court. The lower court had determined on May 7 that the 10% global tariff exceeded legal authority, but it did not apply a ban on tariff collection to all importers.
The appeals court noted that the Trump administration's appeal could be accepted in the main case and that halting the tariff collection could cause irreparable harm to the federal government. The appeals court had previously suspended the lower court's ruling on May 12.
The contentious 10% global tariff was imposed by President Trump in February under Section 122 of the Trade Act, which allows the president to impose additional tariffs of up to 15% for a maximum of 150 days without congressional approval in cases of significant balance of payments issues.
During this period, the Trump administration is seeking to establish a more permanent basis for tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act. On June 2, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the results of a Section 301 investigation targeting 60 economic zones, citing insufficient measures to ban imports of goods produced with forced labor.
The USTR proposed a 10% additional tariff for economic zones that have established or committed to a ban on forced labor goods, while suggesting a 12.5% tariff for others. South Korea falls under the 12.5% tariff category. However, this proposal is not final and is currently in a comment period, with the USTR set to accept written comments until July 6 and hold a public hearing on July 7.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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