UPDATE - Trump says he will impose new 10% duties after Supreme Court strikes down tariffs

ADDS DETAILS THROUGHOUT

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump said Friday that he will impose a new 10% tariff on nations around the world under new authorities after the Supreme Court struck down his global import tax campaign.

Trump sharply attacked the top court shortly after it handed down its 6-3 decision, saying he is "ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country."

"Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic. They're so happy, and they're dancing in the streets, but they won't be dancing for long. That I can assure you," he told reporters at the White House.

The US president said that in response to the ruling he would be signing an executive order to institute a 10% tariff "over and above our normal tariffs already being charged" on nations around the world later Friday in an attempt to work around the legal defeat.

Additional trade investigations will also be launched under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, he said. The authorities allow a president to impose tariffs on nations deemed to be engaged in “unjustifiable,” and “unreasonable or discriminatory” trade practices.

"Their decision is incorrect, but it doesn't matter, because we have very powerful alternatives that have been approved by this decision," Trump said of the Supreme Court.

The top court's 6-3 decision severely cuts down on a tool Trump has used to pursue his economic and foreign policy agendas after he spent much of his first year in office using the levies to push nations to cut new trade deals, and saying tariffs were one of several tools he used to pressure countries into halting wars.

The court dismissed the president's rationale that a 1977 law, known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEAPA), allows him to impose the import duties on an emergency basis.

Trump sought to cast the decision as that of the court's Democratic justices, but the three liberal justices on the bench were joined by three of the court's six conversative jurists, including Roberts, in rejecting Trump's tariffs.

"I read everything there is to read. And I said, 'Can't lose this case,' but we can when judges are political, when they want to be politically correct, when they're catering to a group of people in DC," he said, referring to Washington, DC.

It is unclear if the president's new tactic to force through his tariffs will pass Constitutional muster. The top court in its ruling explicitly stated that the Constitution "very clearly" gives Congress the authority to tax, including decisions to impose tariffs, not the president.

"The Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote on behalf of the majority, referring to the authors of the Constitution.

Trump said that the new 10% global tariff he is imposing would be rooted in the Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.

That act allows a president to impose duties of up to 15% to address "large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits," but only for a maximum of 150 days "unless such period is extended by Act of Congress."

Trump faces strong headwinds for securing congressional approval for any new tariffs as even some members of his own party stand in opposition to his tariff policies.

Asked why he would not go to Congress in the first place to have them authorize new tariffs, Trump was defiant, saying "I've always had the right to do tariffs."

"It has all been approved by Congress, so there's no reason to do it. All we're doing is we're going through a little bit more complicated process, not complicated very much, but a little more complicated than what we had," he said.