The U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Canada and the rest of the world, ruling he exceeded his authority under an emergency-powers law.
The three-judge panel’s decision blocks both the fentanyl and border security-related tariffs on Canada and Mexico and the global “reciprocal tariffs” Trump imposed in April that have unleashed widespread economic chaos.
“The challenged tariff orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined,” the ruling says.
Trump declared a national emergency on fentanyl earlier this year to justify the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, saying they were necessary to elicit action from those countries to curb the flow of the deadly opioid.
He later ordered the United States’ trade deficits with several countries also amount to a national emergency, dubbing his April 2 announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs as “Liberation Day.”
Both emergencies were declared under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA), which the Trump administration argued gives the president broad power over how to respond, including through actions on imports to the U.S.
But the court sided with several states and businesses that challenged the tariffs over the economic harm the plaintiffs said was caused, and that only Congress has authority under the U.S. constitution to approve tariffs.
The White House said in a statement to Global News that the court did not dispute the harms caused by the trade “emergency” Trump declared. It did not say if the administration will appeal the decision, although it is expected to.
“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” spokesperson Kush Desai said.
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“President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness.”
The plaintiffs argued that the IEPPA does not authorize the use of tariffs. Even if it did, they said, the trade deficits with foreign trading partners do not meet the law’s requirement that an emergency be triggered only by an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
In the case of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the court said they do not fit the emergency law’s definition of measures to “deal with” a threat to the U.S. — in this case, fentanyl and illegal immigration.
“‘Deal with’ connotes a direct link between an act and the problem it purports to address,” the court’s decision says.
“A tax deals with a budget deficit by raising revenue. A dam deals with flooding by holding back a river. But there is no such association between the act of imposing a tariff and the ‘unusual and extraordinary threat[s]’ that the Trafficking Orders purport to combat.”
A few U.S. senators have tried to introduce measures that would nullify Trump’s emergency orders and end the tariffs, but have failed to get them passed.
One of those lawmakers, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, told Global News during a visit to Ottawa last week that Trump’s fentanyl emergency declaration was only an excuse to impose tariffs on Canada.
“I just view it as an effort by the president to try to impose tariffs unilaterally,” he said. “To do so, he had to declare an emergency, and that was the emergency he came up with.”
Data from both countries shows that Canada is responsible for less than one per cent of fentanyl seized by U.S. border authorities.
However, a new U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency report said fentanyl production in Canada represents a “growing concern.”
Fentanyl seizures at the northern U.S. border also spiked last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, though remain a fraction of what’s seized at the southern border.
Canada imposed counter-tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs, which imposed a 25 per cent duty on Canadian imports and a 10 per cent tariff on energy products.
Trump later exempted goods traded under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on free trade (CUSMA) from those tariffs. That trade deal is set to be renegotiated by next year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government have been negotiating a new “economic and security partnership” with the U.S.
—With files from Global’s Reggie Cecchini
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
