Jamieson Greer Says Trump Still Has ‘Very Durable Tools’ For Tariffs, Trade Deals

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told “This Week” guest host Martha Raddatz on Sunday that, despite a Supreme Court ruling against his invoking of one legal authority, President Donald Trump still had multiple options to levy tariffs on other countries.

The Supreme Court decided President Donald Trump exceeded his powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in a 6-3 ruling issued Friday which struck down his use of the act to impose reciprocal tariffs. Greer reminded Raddatz that the administration had authority for tariffs under other laws aside from IEEPA.

WATCH:

“We know the president is imposing these 15 percent tariffs across the board around the world, but President Trump had said, if the Supreme Court struck down his tariffs, we would be ‘screwed’ and it would be the ‘biggest threat in history to United States national security’ and that we would be ‘financially defenseless.’” Raddatz said. “How do you see that?”

“And the president addressed this in his press conference on Friday. And he said that since we were looking at this and the possibility of having this tool removed, we had to look at backup plans. And we found ways to really reconstruct what we’re doing,” Greer responded. “Now, it doesn’t have the same flexibility that the president had under the previous authority that he was using, but it gives us very durable tools. It allows us to do investigations, implement tariffs where needed, and provides a lot of leverage and a lot of protection for American industry.”