Section 338, in particular, allows the President to impose a duty of up to 50% on a country’s goods to “offset commercial disadvantages” if it factually finds that said country “discriminates” against U.S. commerce.
Speaking to Reuters, John Veroneau, who worked in the USTR under former President George W. Bush’s Administration and who has extensively studied the statute, said it aimed to ensure equal application of levies and that countries did not grant preferential tariff rates to other nations at the expense of American exports.
But Trump is veering away from the statute’s principle in a “maximalist” way, Veroneau said: “These tariffs may be lawful under Section 338, but they at a minimum violate the spirit of Section 338, which was to create a world where countries apply the same tariffs on the same goods to all countries.”
Veroneau told Reuters that past Presidents had mulled imposing tariffs under Section 338, but no record could be found of anyone doing so until Trump’s orders on Monday.
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