America's Talking - Businesses Sue Trump Admin Over ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs

Episode Date: April 19, 2025

(The Center Square) – A nonprofit public-interest litigation firm filed a lawsuit Monday alleging President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs require congressional approval. The Liberty Justice Center, based in Texas, challenged the administration's reciprocal tariffs, which Trump announced on April 2 and suspended on April 9, hours after they went into effect. The Liberty Justice Center filing argues that the administration has no authority to issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs without congressional approval. The nonprofits lawsuit alleges Trump has broadly overstepped his authority by claiming "the authority to unilaterally levy tariffs on goods imported from any and every country in the world, at any rate, calculated via any methodology – or mere caprice – immediately, with no notice, or public comment, or phase-in, or delay in implementation, despite massive economic impacts that are likely to do severe damage to the global economy."Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_e9db5f3b-3417-4d53-981e-08253316dbcb.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulip, chief content officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. It wouldn't be a week in the news business if we didn't talk about tariffs. The Trump administration says that more than 75 nations have reached out to the president and his trade team to discuss fair trade with the U.S. joining me to discuss this today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, while most of Trump's reciprocal tariffs are paused, as negotiations continue, the trade war with China seems to have ratcheted up.

Tell us more. Yeah, so what began as a rollout of broad tariffs for the entire world has narrowed into tariffs on China and then escalated into what many would call a trade war. I think there are signs that the trade war is actually getting colder, though. Trump has said, he told reporters this week that he doesn't want to keep, he said, quote, I don't want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don't buy. So I may not want to go higher. I may not want to even get up to that level.

It continued on at a certain point people are going to buy. And so China has also, you know, signaled that they may not raise anymore. So, you know, I think we do have some encouraging news on this front. Right now, tariffs are about 145% on Chinese goods. Now, it varies a lot. Certain goods have specific tariffs on them. So you can't just say the tariffs are this. But the general tariffs are 145%.

Of course, China has their own tariffs on us, so we don't ship nearly as many goods over there as they do. And so, you know, both sides are feeling this. I mean, most people would say that China is feeling it worse because we import a lot of more things from them. But the degree to which China is relying on the American consumer, I think, has been a little bit exaggerated. I mean, they're definitely going to feel the pain of this. But from what I've seen, shipping goods to U.S. consumers is now, it used to be a large part of the Chinese economy.

But now it's a much smaller percentage because they've, they basically have become the, manufacturer for the entire world. And so they ship to countries all over the world, not just the U.S. So they're much less reliant just on the U.S. than they used to be. So I think they can endure this a lot longer. So this idea that we can use tariffs to totally crush China, I don't think it's true. It's more like we're pressuring them. And then I think what Trump has said is that we can get some kind of a better trade deal from them. And I think that benefits China and the U.S. to, instead of having these tariffs and escalating, let's get a trade deal, that both sides feel is equitable.

So let's talk about the tariffs on the European Union. Trump says more than 75 countries have reached out to his administration, wanting to talk about it. From the beginning, has said his tariffs, you know, are part of a negotiation tactic to get more fair trade for the U.S. There's been an imbalance for decades, Trump said. Do you think these negotiations are going to pan out? Well, it's so many negotiations. And, you know, Trump's only in office four years. So it's going to be really interesting to see and how quickly can you really put something together. So far, we haven't seen any announced, right? And so if there's any hope that these are just going to be come together for a day or two and hammer these out, so far, that has been the case. Trade deals are really complicated. I mean, for the USMCA, it took a long time to come up with that. And so I think long term, it could theoretically be more favorable for the

U.S. to leverage its power on an individual basis over every country and get a better set of trade deals. But that's going to take a lot of time, I think. And so if they don't prioritize this, I'm not sure that we're going to see it get done, but really before Trump is out. And then if a Democrat comes in, they might just undo all of it. So I'm not sure what the long-term game here is. I think with China, it makes a lot more sense that, you know, China does some pretty nefarious things behind the scenes, for instance, there's, I mean, there's evidence now that Chinese companies have been providing satellite imagery to the Houthis to attack American ships. And so China's always misbehaving. And cracking down on China makes a lot of sense long term. And there's bipartisan

support for that. However, cracking down on European allies and other countries for maybe marginal improvements, I don't think it has the same sort of robust backing in D.C. that is needed to make it more of a legacy accomplishment for the Trump administration. And of course, there are even plenty of conservatives who are concerned about the trade war and these tariffs. A free market, nonprofit law firm, Liberty Justice Center this week filed suit against the Trump administration over the tariffs. They represent several business groups around the country. And they say that President Trump cannot unilaterally levy these tariffs, that Congress needs to be involved. So there are certainly concerns among the business community about the trade war and these tariffs.

Yeah, I mean, it's really split the right. I mean, libertarians and some conservatives are really concerned about it. There's, you know, free market economics dating back to Reagan and before have been a big part of, you know, the Republican idea. And so Trump is Trump and his version of populism have really turning on his head. And so far, I think a lot of the lawmakers in the House and Senate are just being patient because they know that Trump can kind of change his mind quickly on things. And we've seen that with the tariffs. I mean, he implemented them, you know, stock market slid. And he said, wait, never mind. And so in a way you say it was probably wise for these Republican senators just to hold their tongue to buy their time because now we don't have, you know, hardly any tariffs. We just have this trade war with China and some new trade deals. And so it all kind of worked out, I think, for a lot of. of these Republican senators who opposed them but didn't say much at the time for strategic or pragmatic reasons. There's, you know, there is a legal question of what authority the president has to do this. You know, I can't, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not expert on that issue, but that's just another example of what Trump is facing questions about his authority.

I will say Congress has given Trump's authority, given the president authority to negotiate and do a lot of tariffs more broadly, but, you know, negotiate treaties are part of the Senate's role, of course. So it's interesting and questioned how elaborate can the trade deal be before it needs congressional approval is an interesting question. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecenter square.com.