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Top US trade negotiator Jamieson Greer insisted on Sunday that US policy on tariffs “hasn’t changed”, two days after the supreme court declared many of Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal.
The ruling issued on Friday by the highest US court was a sharp rebuke to the Republican president that toppled a key pillar of his aggressive economic agenda – even as it prompted Trump to announce a new global tariff using different statutes, albeit temporary.
“The reality is, we want to maintain the policy we have, have as much continuity as possible, make sure that business understands this is the direction we’ve been going. We’re going to continue going this way,” Greer told the ABC News Sunday politics show This Week.
ABC host Martha Raddatz asked Greer about the government’s persistence despite the unpopularity of the policy with the public, citing an ABC/Washington Post/Ipsos poll that showed 64% of those surveyed in the US disapproved of tariffs as an economic strategy.
“The policy hasn’t changed. The legal tools that implement that may change but the policy hasn’t changed,” he said, arguing that it gives US business “a lot of leverage” in world trade.
Greer also said in a separate interview with CBS that the US will not back out of tariff deals it has already sealed with a number of countries around the world including the UK, the EU, Japan, Switzerland and others, even though the supreme court ruled that tariffs imposed in those deals were illegal.
He said that the 15% global tariff Trump announced on Saturday, up from 10% announced on Friday in the immediate aftermath of the court ruling, was distinct from the bilateral agreements struck in the last nine months with around 20 countries.
“We want them to understand these deals are going to be good deals,” Greer said. “We’re going to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them.”
Greer conceded in an interview with CBS on Sunday that the administration would have less flexibility in imposing emergency tariffs of the type knocked down by the court as an inappropriate use of a 1977 emergency powers law.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called the ruling a win for American consumers and an example of how Trump’s “overreach failed”, adding: “A president cannot ignore Congress and unilaterally slap tariffs on Americans … Now Trump should end this reckless trade war for good and finally give families and small businesses the relief they deserve.”
Trump’s policy is designed to penalize other countries’ exporters and inspire domestic and foreign manufacturers to invest and make more goods within the US, but critics argue that American consumers have simply ended up paying more.
The supreme court ruling infuriated Trump, who on Saturday announced a 15% global tariff on all foreign imports, devised under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, a different legal framework to the one investigated by the supreme court.
In the 6-3 ruling on Friday, with three conservative-leaning justices dissenting, the court decided that a 1977 law designed to address US national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for most of the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Tariffs typically need to be approved by Congress, which has sole authority under the constitution to levy taxes. Trump argued that he had the right to impose tariffs on trading partners under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, which in some circumstances grants the president authority to regulate or prohibit international transactions during a national emergency.
But in its majority opinion, the court said the ability to enact tariffs during peacetime does in fact belong to Congress.
Greer indicated that the administration would not automatically seek congressional authorization for the new tariffs, which are destined to expire within five months without it.
Greer also told ABC that the administration will leave the issue of refunds for the tariffs imposed so far to the court of international trade. He said the supreme court had “created a situation where they struck down the tariffs and gave zero guidance on this”.
Separately, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the administration would wait for a lower court’s direction on the topic of refunds on the cost of tariffs so far on US business.
“The president and the administration remain undeterred on re-shoring American factories and getting rid of massive trade imbalances,” Bessent told CNN’s State of the Union. “That’s the big story here. We’re immediately going to go to Section 122 tariffs and the revenue projections for the US treasury for 2026 are unchanged.”
Also on CNN, California governor Gavin Newsom attacked Trump’s tariff policy, saying “the whole thing is a farce”.
“Talk about petulance … it was 10% two days ago and maybe 20% tomorrow. This is madness. He’s flailing. He’s a punch-drunk boxer. He’s just trying to hit anything, even his shadow,” Newsom said.
He described the Trump-Bessent crafted economy as “dumb and dumber … they’ve wrecked this economy. 1.4% GDP growth in the last quarter, inflation back up to 3%, the worst jobs we’ve seen since 2013 … it’s a wrecking-ball presidency”.
