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Federal court blocks Trump’s global tariffs

May 8, 2026, 6:43am EDT
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S President Donald Trump.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters

A US federal court overruled President Donald Trump’s latest effort to impose new global tariffs. Trump had tried to circumvent February’s Supreme Court block on his “Liberation Day” duties, but judges said his justification was inadequate.

He remains keen to use levies as a tool of international diplomacy — he threatened the EU with “much higher” tariffs if it did not implement a previously agreed US trade deal, while extending the deadline to do so until July 4.

Brussels is weighing striking back by restricting American access to EU public procurement unless the US opens up its own economy. The tit-for-tat measures risk “a cycle of restrictions that leaves all countries worse off,” the WTO chief wrote in the Financial Times.

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