Trump Turns to Import Bans After Tariff Ruling — SkimNews
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- Trump threatened on Truth Social to ban Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier from selling jets in the U.S., hours before Canada's retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion in U.S. goods took effect.
- Trump tied a demand for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates to a sweeping threat to "stop trading with countries with which we have a deficit," adding: "IT'S BETTER THAN TARIFFS!"
- Federal trade laws explicitly authorize presidents to prohibit imports under certain conditions, giving Trump firmer legal footing than the emergency tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February.
- U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said outright bans could be an option against Canada's retaliatory tariffs and pointed to Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — already invoked against Canada — as authority to exclude a country's goods.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh flagged the gap in oral arguments as an "odd donut hole": a president could shut down trade entirely but could not impose even a 1% tariff.
- Bombardier employs over 1,000 people in Wichita, Kansas, and buys from roughly 2,800 U.S. suppliers across 47 states, prompting Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) to alert the administration to the economic stakes.
Why it matters: The February Supreme Court ruling that blocked Trump's emergency tariffs preserved a more drastic option — Section 338 and related statutes let him prohibit imports entirely, bypassing tariff authority. Bombardier alone is tied to 2,800 U.S. suppliers across 47 states, and Canadian retaliation is already live, so even a symbolic ban threatens supply-chain disruption severe enough that Senate Republicans from affected states are already lobbying the administration.
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