US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the United States could face a massive financial reversal if the Supreme Court rules against his administration’s
sweeping tariff policy. Marking one year since his second term, the President said that the government might be forced to "do our best" to refund hundreds of billions of dollars in duties already collected from global trade partners. Trump said he is unsure how the high court will rule on the legality of his use of emergency powers to bypass Congress. While he continued to defend the levies as vital for national security and federal revenue, he cautioned that a forced repayment would "hurt a lot of people". I don’t know what the Supreme Court will do about tariffs. If we lose this case, we will have to do our best to return the billions of dollars we have collected in tariffs,” Trump said during a White House press briefing. With the Supreme Court now entering a four-week recess without a decision, the fate of the President’s economic cornerstone remains in limbo until at least late February. Notably, this is the third time the US SC postponed a ruling on Trump's tariff power on Jan 20. The court's ruling is expected on President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs without congressional approval. India faces a tariff rate of 50 per cent, and the ruling's outcome was expected redefine the limits of presidential authority in the US. As and when it comes, it may also provide clarity on the US-India trade deal, which has not been reached even after six rounds of negotiations. Notably, the tariff turmoil recently escalated after Trump, last weekend, said, that he would charge a tariff of 10 per cent starting in February on goods from eight European countries because of their opposition to America's control of Greenland. In the larger scheme of things, Trump's second term unleashed aggressive tariffs starting in early 2025. On April 2, which Trump termed as 'Liberation Day' he invoked IEEPA to impose 10 per cent baseline global tariffs and higher "reciprocal" rates, up to 34 per cent on China and 20 per cent on the EU, declaring trade deficits a national emergency.
