President Donald Trump said that he, personally, wants to attend next month’s Supreme Court hearing on his tariff policies. Beginning November 5th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether the president can unilaterally impose tariffs under emergency powers and is acting legally in his bypassing of Congress. The case involves the import tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China over allegations of fentanyl trafficking as well as Trump’s reciprocal tariffs imposed on dozens of other countries.
Mexico and Canada do have some tariff protection for products that are compliant under the USMCA. The overall USMCA agreement comes up for review and renegotiation next year. But Canada is still suffering under some of the toughest U.S. tariff actions for some of its largest export sectors — the auto industry, along with steel, aluminum, and Canada’s softwood lumber. The lumber export industry was limping along under an existing 35 percent tariff, but last week another 10 percent tariff was placed on all non-U.S. lumber.
David Eby, premier of British Columbia and the largest softwood lumber exporter into the U.S. marketplace, said what now amounts to a more than 45 percent tariff on Canadian lumber makes it less competitive than even Russian lumber going into the United States.
One of the chief Canadian negotiators of the original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)- signed in the early 1990’s- was John Weekes. Weekes said that, since that time, the U.S. market’s importance in the world has changed. It is no longer the largest or wealthiest market. However, a lot of Canadians seem to be holding onto hope that Trump’s tariff war will disappear when the USMCA is renegotiated next year or when Trump eventually leaves office.
While two lower-tier U.S. courts have already ruled that Trump’s tariff actions are, in fact, illegal, there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will rule against the U.S. President’s existing tariff policies. A Republican majority on the highest U.S. court has repeatedly voted in favor of the president, even expanding presidential powers.