The conservative-majority Supreme Court could find the tariffs illegal, blocking duties imposed on goods from countries worldwide. Or judges could affirm Trump’s actions, opening the door to further levies.
Also at stake are billions of dollars in customs revenue already collected and Trump’s efforts to leverage tariffs for favourable trade deals – or other political priorities.
The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, would not directly affect sector-specific tariffs Trump imposed, including on steel, aluminium and automobiles.
But even as Trump’s tariffs have not sparked widespread inflation, US companies, especially small businesses, say they are bearing the brunt of additional costs.
EXISTENTIAL THREAT
“These tariffs threaten the very existence of small businesses like mine, making it difficult to survive, let alone grow,” said Victor Schwartz, a lead plaintiff in this week’s hearing.
“I was shocked that those with much more power and money did not step up,” added Schwartz, the founder of a family-run New York wine company called VOS Selections.
Pointing to Trump’s fast-changing tariff policies, Schwartz told reporters ahead of the hearing that small firms were “gambling with our livelihoods, trying to predict the unpredictable” as they set retail prices and stocked up on inventory.
Another New York-based business owner, Mike Gracie, who imports hand-painted wallpaper from China, said Trump’s steep tariffs meant “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in new costs.
As Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff fight in April, US duties rocketed to 145 per cent, an added bill that Gracie had to absorb.
“We didn’t want to risk our business by raising prices,” he told AFP. “But we can’t continue indefinitely to absorb them.”
Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania noted that 40 per cent of US imports are intermediate goods, meaning they are not for retail consumers. He warned that maintaining tariffs means US businesses “become less competitive”.
