The Trump administration seeks a tariff plan Plan B that allows for a maximum tariff of 15% to be imposed within 150 days.

[Trump administration seeks tariff plan B to allow tariffs of up to 15% within 15 days] This week, a court ruled that Trump’s use of emergency economic powers to impose sweeping tariffs was illegal, weakening the administration’s tariff strategy, according to the Wall Street Journal. On Thursday, a federal appeals court allowed its tariffs to remain in effect while the government appealed, but according to people familiar with the matter, the president’s team is considering a two-pronged response as the strategy is under threat. First, the government is considering a stopgap measure to address trade imbalances with other countries by imposing tariffs on much of the global economy under a never-before-used provision of the Trade Act of 1974, including allowing tariffs of up to 15 percent within 15 days, the people said. This will buy Trump time to design personalized tariffs for each of his major trading partners, based on different provisions of the same law, to combat unfair foreign trade practices. The second step requires a lengthy notification and comment process, but in the eyes of government officials, this step is more legally defensible than the tariff policy that was found illegal this week. The people also said that the conversation is still uncertain and the government has not yet made a final decision. ( gold ten )