Senior U.S. officials stated that President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court loss on tariffs will not undo agreements negotiated with America’s partners, as they worked to justify the administration’s aggressive trade stance.
Those agreements — established with partners such as China, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea — are still valid, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. He aimed to distinguish those pacts from the new 15% global tariff Trump declared on Saturday.
“We want them to understand these deals are going to be good deals,” Greer stated. “We’re going to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them.”
Tensions from the fresh uncertainty emerged Sunday as the European Parliament’s trade head said he would suggest pausing the EU’s ratification of a trade agreement with the U.S. until the Trump administration explains its policy. In New Delhi, officials gave similar justifications for India postponing a trip to the U.S. this week to conclude an interim trade deal.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision that rejected Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs came ahead of his scheduled visit to China next month. Greer indicated that other U.S. trade mechanisms, including probes into other nations’ trade activities, would provide the U.S. with leverage.
“We have tariffs like this already in place on China, we have open investigations already,” he remarked.
Trump is anticipated to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip beginning March 31.
“The president and Xi have a strong relationship,” Greer told News Sunday. He noted that the U.S. upholds an average 40% tariff on China without employing the emergency law invalidated by the court.
Trump’s trade strategy, though largely overturned by the Supreme Court, has still agitated U.S. trading partners globally, including the EU.
Greer mentioned he “spoke with my counterpart from the EU this weekend” and would be conversing with officials from other major U.S. trading partners to offer reassurance.
“Rest assured, I’ve been speaking to these folks as well,” Greer told CBS. “I’ve been telling them for a year — whether we won or lost, we were going to have tariffs, the president’s policy was going to continue.”
“That’s why they signed these deals even while the litigation was pending,” he added.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body in Brussels, stated Sunday it seeks “full clarity” on the Trump administration’s forthcoming actions. “A deal is a deal,” the bloc’s executive arm said in a statement, noting it expects the U.S. to uphold its obligations under a trade pact signed in August.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said it is “critically important” for global trade to “have clarity” from the U.S. administration.
“I hope it’s going to be clarified, and it’s going to be sufficiently thought through so that we don’t have, again, more challenges and the proposals will be in compliance with the constitution, in compliance with the law,” Lagarde commented on Face the Nation.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier Sunday the U.S. was in touch with its foreign trading partners “and they like the tariff deals.”
“So you know, they’re not going to be changed,” Bessent said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
Representative Don Bacon, a Republican skeptical of tariffs who applauded the Supreme Court ruling, said in a post that Trump’s new 15% tariff order “will not endure.”
The new tariffs will be grounded in Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which permits the president to levy tariffs for 150 days without congressional approval under certain conditions, such as “large and serious” balance of payments deficits.
“It is not Constitutional,” Bacon stated on X. “It’s not only terrible policy, but it is also bad politics.”
Read More:
Greer indicated that U.S. trade partners should not expect tariff reductions due to the Supreme Court ruling.
He said the 15% global tariff Trump announced Saturday is “roughly equivalent to the types of tariffs that we had in place” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — the authority the court ruled Trump cannot use for tariffs.
“The reality is, we want to maintain the policy we have, have as much continuity as possible,” Greer said on ABC’s This Week.