Free Republic

For thousands of manufacturers across China, it’s déjà vu—with implications for the country’s fragile economy. Earlier this year, after President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% in April, American customers of Alan Chau’s toy factory in southern China abruptly froze orders, sparking a cash crunch ttohat brought his business to the brink. So it came as a relief when the U.S. and China reached a trade truce weeks later in mid-May, rolling back most of their tariffs on one another—and allowing Chau to resume shipping his products again. Now, less than six months later, prohibitively high tariffs could...

For many years now, many Americans have been muttering under our breath, “Why do we buy so much from China?” Whether we’re at a clothing store, a computer superstore or a big box discounter, the question is the same as we see that label on the box. The same goes for us in the business world, as we find ourselves forced to buy parts, components, even finished goods made in China, because they just aren’t available anywhere else. Not in the USA, not in Mexico, often nowhere on earth except China. It’s unacceptable, but sometimes, we’re stuck. So we elected...

The Supreme Court will likely agree with lower courts that ruled President Donald Trump can’t use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs, according experts surveyed by JPMorgan. Trade and legal experts said the odds that the high court will rule against the Trump administration are 70%-80% and expect a decision by the end of the year

Brick by brick, President Donald Trump is building a wall around the world’s largest economy. As America’s tariff barriers on everyone else have gone up, so has the drawbridge, making it harder for migrants to enter the country. The president wants to turn America into a fortress that keeps out foreign incursions. In fact, he is cutting America off from the very goods and talent that helped make its economy the envy of the world. Already the damage is starting to show; once wreaked, it will not easily be reversed. That is not how investors see it. In the six...

Washington — American farmers are having a tough year, in no small part because of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, the White House is gearing up to extend them a multi-billion-dollar bailout, sources tell CNN. Surging costs and foreign retaliation from tariffs have hurt the US agriculture industry — as have immigration-related labor shortages and plummeting commodity prices. Farm production expenses are estimated to reach $467.4 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department, up $12 billion from last year. Farm bankruptcies rose in the first half of the year to the highest level since 2021, according to US...

The status quo is not going to cut it for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at his Tuesday meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington. With an unemployment rate of 7.1%, the highest level in nine years and half a percentage point higher since the start of this year, Canada’s economy is faltering. Steep tariffs Trump slapped on cars, steel and aluminum — key Canadian exports to the United States — are making matters worse. And Carney’s meeting is happening just as Trump is prepared to deal another blow to the Canadian economy: tariffs on softwood and lumber, among the...

Conservative law professor William Jacobson of Cornell University, publisher of the Legal Insurrection blog, appeared on the Jesse Kelly show this week and outlined an upcoming Supreme Court case for Trump that he describes as ‘very high stakes.’ The case has to do with the Trump tariffs, and depending on how the court rules, it could have a significant effect on Trump’s economic policy. Jacobson suggests that it could be a very close call. Transcript via Legal Insurrection: Kelly (00:05): The Supreme Court is about to begin another term. I don’t understand these terms. I don’t understand what they’re doing...

In light of Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) announcement on Tuesday that it will offer its drugs at reduced prices to American consumers, President Trump is backing off his threat to impose 100% tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals to give other drugmakers timeto cut their own deals. A White House official told Politico that it is seeking deals with other large pharmas that would be similar to Pfizer's. On Tuesday, the president also announced the launch of TrumpRx , a direct-to-consumer website for consumers to find discounted drugs. The official alluded to comments made by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a press event announcing...

The European Union is poised to fully implement the world's first carbon border tax from Jan 1st...The EU is poised to implement the climate policy as part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote cleaner production processes outside the bloc.

We now have confirmed reports of all commercial traffic into Canada are blocked. Here in the WNY area, we have Interstate 190 clogged, due to this delay. WE are told it's some kind of malfunction, but so far, it appears to be nationwide. No further details from Ottawa.

Peter Navarro, senior counselor to President Donald Trump for trade and manufacturing, during a special Founders Roundtable on Breitbart Fight Club said that President Donald Trump has proven the country could use tariffs to reduce its trade deficit.“We run chronic trade deficits which exceed a trillion dollars a year. Now, we’ve exported $18 trillion of wealth so far through the chronic trade deficit, and we’ve seen a reduction in our resilience, in our supply chains, our availability. It’s hurt our defense industrial base. It’s a national emergency in every possible way that you could think,” Navarro said in response to...

Democrat lawyers want to define tariffs as taxes because taxes must be approved by Congress, not Trump. Taxes are imposed upon persons earning income in the U.S. Tariffs are import duties imposed upon foreign entities. They are not taxes. The courts need to get this right. If the courts says Congress must approve tariffs, Congress will be unable to comply. Tariffs change commonly, and there are 194 countries that will pay tariffs to us. There is no chance that Congress could handle that task, nor should it. Congress’s duty is to approve a rare change of income tax, which is...

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear arguments over President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, taking up a fast-moving appeal that deals with the centerpiece of the administration’s economic agenda. In the meantime, the tariffs will remain in place while the court hears the case. Trump is pressing the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that found his administration acted unlawfully by imposing many of his import taxes, including the “Liberation Day” tariffs the White House announced in April and tariffs placed this year against China, Mexico and Canada that were designed to combat fentanyl entering the United States....

Political Junkie’s Advanced AI Review of the Federal Circuit Court’s Rejection of President Trump’s Tariffs Below is another Perplexity Pro AI discussion about emerging news. This time, I had the AI analyze the decision by the Federal Circuit Court that declared that President Trump had no delegated authority to issue his sweeping tariffs using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). As has happened before, the AI starts with the mainstream opinion, and then is slowly moved to an opposite opinion once the facts are more deeply explored. As usual, this is a VERY LONG thread, as it explores...

After five brutal months of unrestricted lawfare against the Trump Administration, it looks like the Supreme Court will finally weigh-in on tariffs. On August 29, 2025, a Federal Circuit Court of Appeal decided that President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs were illegal. Specifically, the Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs of unlimited duration, on all goods from all countries. This is because tariffs are not mentioned in the Statute, and even if they were, the tariffs are not credibly related to a national emergency. The Trump Administration is appealing. Solicitor General...

As Phoenician sailors ventured into the waters of the western Mediterranean Sea to establish new settlements in the early first millennium b.c., they deliberately brought the familiar scents of home with them, according to a statement issued by the University of Tübingen. Researchers from the University of Tübingen and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) recently analyzed more than 50 miniature ceramic vessels found in ancient tombs, houses, and sacred areas at a Phoenician site on the island of Motya, off the west coast of Sicily. The study determined that all had been made in southern Phoenicia, near present-day Beirut,...

One of the signature initiatives of President Trump’s second term has been what I have called the “tariff gambit” — the rapid blizzard of tariff actions, including declarations of emergencies, tariff impositions, increases and decreases in rates, postponements, and negotiations of new trade deals with various countries. In several prior posts, including here and here, I have raised a series of concerns with this area of the President’s policies. Putting aside for a moment the question of whether these various tariff initiatives constitute good public policy, a separate question is whether the President has a legal basis to impose, raise...

President Trump’s tariffs are one of the broadest claims of executive power in American history, taxing imports from anywhere on his personal whim. The problem is he doesn’t have that power under the law or the Constitution, as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled late Friday in V.O.S. Selections v. U.S. This is a crucial moment for the Constitution’s separation of powers. A 7-4 majority upheld a lower-court decision striking down the tariffs that Mr. Trump imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). In February he invoked the law to slap taxes on imports...

The Trump administration is continuing its talks with trading partners despite a US appeals court ruling that most of President Trump’s tariffs are illegal, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday. “Our trading partners, they continue to work very closely with us on negotiations,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “People are moving forward with their deals, regardless of what this court may say in the interim.” Greer did not say which countries the US was still in talks with, but said he had spoken with one trade minister on Saturday morning. The ruling...

A major can of worms just got opened. In a late decision on Friday, August 29, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, decided 7 to 4 that Donald Trump’s tariffs were largely imposed without the proper authority. While the levies will remain in place until October 14, the fact that the challenge exists could be enough to cause more than just market turmoil.From Court to CourtThe DC court ruled the president did not have the right to implement the type of tariffs he did using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Historically,...