Tariff
Ruling Gives Businesses Hope, but They’re Soon Unmoored Again
Companies
welcomed a court decision striking down President Trump’s tariffs. Then a stay
of that ruling left no one breathing easy.
Lydia
DePillis
By Lydia
DePillis
May 29, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/business/economy/trump-tariffs-ruling-businesses.html
Emma
Mcilroy’s apparel company, Wildfang, had been working overtime to move its
production out of China in the months since President Trump launched his trade
war. Finding another factory that could produce jumpsuits and button-downs —
while every other U.S. importer was also jockeying for space — was a huge drain
on the 11-person staff’s attention.
But when Ms.
Mcilroy saw on Wednesday night that a federal court had ruled most of Mr.
Trump’s tariffs illegal, all of that work paused. Would the tariffs be gone
when her next shipment arrived in August, or not?
“I have
absolutely no idea where it’s going. I am learning in real time how to run my
business,” Ms. Mcilroy said Thursday. “Yesterday I would’ve told you, ‘Yes,
absolutely, you’re going to see me manufacturing stuff in Vietnam.’ Today I’m
not sure.”
American
businesses are rapidly digesting the latest twist in Mr. Trump’s roller-coaster
trade war, which has made it impossible to plan more than a few weeks in
advance. It’s particularly hard on industries that place their orders entire
seasons ahead of time.
The details
of Wednesday’s decision seemed likely to bring relief. A three-judge panel of
the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the Trump administration had
acted illegally in using an emergency powers law to impose 30 percent tariffs
on goods from China, 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Mexico and Canada,
and 10 percent on everyone else. The court gave the White House 10 days to halt
the new duties.
Hours later,
a higher court stayed the decision.
If the
initial ruling sticks, it will preclude the return of steeper “reciprocal”
tariffs that Mr. Trump paused for 90 days in early April. It might even allow
companies that have paid the emergency tariffs over the past several months to
claim refunds, already an established process at Customs and Border Protection.
And it could
result in the reinstatement of the de minimis exemption on goods from China.
Using the emergency powers law, Mr. Trump closed the loophole, which had for
years allowed Chinese shipments worth $800 or less to enter the country
tariff-free.
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Even
briefly, companies took a little solace in the idea that Mr. Trump’s power to
set the terms of trade had been curbed. But the Trump administration quickly
appealed the ruling and received the stay — keeping the tariffs in place —
while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit considers the case.
Appeals could continue all the way to the Supreme Court.
That’s why
few are going back to business as usual.
Companies
that process customs paperwork and payments on behalf of importers said they
would keep collecting the tariffs struck down by the court. “With nothing
official coming down the pipeline from U.S. Customs, I am advising the status
quo,” said Adam Lewis, a co-founder of Clearit, a customs broker.
The White
House’s attitude toward judicial authority in other cases — such as the
administration’s refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant sent to a
prison in El Salvador, despite a Supreme Court order — also raises doubts about
whether Customs and Border Protection would abide by the ruling on tariffs.
“I think
about the Abrego Garcia decision and whether or not the executive branch even
listens to the courts,” said Matt Hassett, the chief executive of Loftie, a
company that makes lamps and alarm clocks in China. “It’s not out of the
question that they would just ignore it or immediately try to replace it with a
tariff under another authority.”
Mr. Hassett
said he had to raise prices significantly, which depressed sales, and was
preparing to pay as much as 70 percent on a shipment that would depart soon.
Loftie plans to keep working to move production out of China, since trade
barriers are likely to return in some fashion, he said.
The Retail
Industry Leaders Association, a trade group for large retailers, also cautioned
its members that the White House could try to impose tariffs through other
avenues.
“The
constant on-and-off-again nature of the tariffs has made business planning
incredibly difficult,” said Blake Harden, the association’s vice president for
international trade.
Deciding
what to charge customers has been a challenge since Mr. Trump took office and
will remain so, according to executives who were processing the latest
development on earnings calls on Thursday.
Most
suggested that while lower tariffs were beneficial, the court’s ruling and its
appeal by the Trump administration threw their planning into further chaos.
“I would say
it is a fluid situation, given the news last night and this morning,” Kohl’s
chief financial officer, Jill Timm, said on the company’s earnings call. But if
there is a pause in tariffs, she added, “that could be a positive.”
For others,
the whipsawing made them finally give up on updating their pricing and strategy
with every change in tariffs.
“So I just
decided last night the only thing I can do is say to customers: ‘Here’s the
number. We’ll take the risk,’” said Miriam Tuerk, chief executive of Clear Blue
Technologies, a Canadian manufacturer of solar equipment. For products headed
to the United States, it’s not clear what profit margins will look like.
“‘If we do
better, we’ll give you a rebate,’” Ms. Tuerk said on an earnings call. “That’s
where we’re at. So the chaos and uncertainty is definitely going to cause
issues. It’s not fun.”
E.L.F.
Beauty, a drugstore cosmetics line that makes most of its products in China,
had announced plans to raise prices by $1 in August — its third price increase
in 21 years — to partly cover tariffs that reached a high of 170 percent of the
value of a shipment that arrived in April.
“We didn’t
have a choice but to continue to bring product in; otherwise, there won’t be
anything on the shelf,” the company’s chief executive, Tarang Amin, said.
What happens
to the price increase if tariffs against China and elsewhere are indeed
blocked? “We would absolutely roll that back,” he said.
For many
businesses, the White House’s trade war has been damaging not just because of
the taxes on imports but also because of the tariffs that other countries have
imposed in response. The Court of International Trade’s decision created some
hope that those may ultimately be relaxed as well — although at the moment,
other nations have little incentive to negotiate with the Trump administration,
since the court may limit its leverage.
Trim-Tex,
which makes drywall construction accessories in Lincolnwood, Ill., and Miami,
exports 20 percent of its output, including to Canada, which has imposed
tariffs on a broad swath of U.S. products.
Sales at the
company, which has 250 employees, are down 10 percent year over year, said its
chief financial officer, Matt Totsch. He hopes the court decision will make
international markets less wary of trading with U.S.-based manufacturers.
“Hopefully
in the short term, it shows countries this is not what we stand for,” Mr.
Totsch said. “The United States needs to be known as a reliable partner in the
world, and hopefully this will show that.”
Reporting
was contributed by Peter Eavis, Madeleine Ngo, Kevin Draper, Sydney Ember and
Julie Creswell.
Lydia
DePillis reports on the American economy. She has been a journalist since 2009,
and can be reached at lydia.depillis@nytimes.com.
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