The US Supreme Court, ruling that Trump abused his power, overturned the tariff increases imposed on various countries

The US Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump abused his authority in imposing a series of tariffs that are upending global trade.

The Supreme Court has struck down the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on various countries, ruling that Trump had abused his authority by abusing the law to be used in national emergencies.

The judges ruled by a 6-3 majority. The court also ruled that levies are not permitted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977.  The court said that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) "does not authorize the President to impose tariffs."

While Trump has long used tariffs as a lever for pressure and negotiations, when he returned to the presidency last year, he used unprecedented emergency economic powers to impose new duties on all US trading partners.

These include so-called "reciprocal" tariffs on trade practices deemed unfair by the White House, as well as special duties targeting key partners Mexico, Canada and China due to illegal drug flows and immigration.

On April 2 last year, a date Mr. Trump described as “Liberation Day,” the president announced that he would impose “reciprocal” tariffs on products imported from most US trading partners, invoking the IEEPA to address a national emergency related to the US trade deficit, although the US had had a trade deficit for decades.

The court today noted that "if Congress had intended to convey through IEEPA a distinct and extraordinary power to impose tariffs, it would have done so expressly, as it consistently does in other tariff statutes."

The ruling does not affect the sector-specific tariffs that Trump has specifically imposed on imports of steel, aluminum and various other goods. Formal investigations that could lead to further sectoral tariffs are still underway.

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling upholds lower courts' previous findings that the tariffs imposed by Trump under the IEEPA are illegal.

In May, a lower trade court ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority by imposing various levels of levies and blocked most of them from taking effect, but that result was frozen as the US government appealed.