President Joe Biden’s administration has defended the tariffs as properly created.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 30 rejected a challenge from a manufacturer to tariffs on steel imports that were created by former President Donald Trump and have been kept in place by President Joe Biden.
The justices declined to hear PrimeSource Building Products’ appeal of a lower court decision that upheld a 25 percent tariff on imports of steel derivatives.
The court did not explain its decision.
PrimeSource’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Trump in 2018 signed orders imposing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, citing the results of an investigation carried out under the Trade Expansion Act. Officials found that the imports “threaten to impair national security” and had recommended action.
The tariffs were adjusted in 2020 to include some steel derivatives, such as nails.
The original orders followed the law because they came after officials found a threat to national security, but the expansion did not because it came years later without a fresh finding of a threat, Texas-based PrimeSource, a nail importer, has argued.
“Two years later, without undertaking any of the statutory procedures, the president imposed tariffs on an assortment of steel derivatives as well,” PrimeSource told the Supreme Court.
Tariff Laws
Under the law, the president must decide within 90 days of receiving a report from the secretary of commerce whether he agrees with the recommendations and has another 15 days beyond that to impose tariffs.
Then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross found in a 2018 report that “domestic steel production is important for national security applications” and that steel imports were on track to account for more than 30 percent of domestic consumption. He also determined that “excessive quantities of imports has the effect of weakening the internal economy of the United States, threatening to impair the national security.”
The New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade struck down the steel derivatives tariffs in 2021, saying the White House missed statutory deadlines to impose them.
