Trade whiplash: Appeals Court allows Trump to keep tariffs while appeal plays out

An appeals court ruled President Donald Trumpcan continue to levy tariffs while challenging a court order that had blocked them, a quick reversal that allows Trump to keep wielding his trademark economic tool in the short term.

The May 29 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit comes a day after the United States Court of International Trade invalidated his use of the the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to impose tariffs.

The May 28 trade court ruling was setback Trump's economic agenda, but the administration quickly appealed and won at least a temporary reprieve.

The surprise ruling by the trade court had threatened to kill or at least delay the imposition of Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs on most U.S. trading partners, as well as import levies on goods from Canada, Mexico and China related to his accusation that the three countries were facilitating the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

Tariffs are a centerpiece of Trump's second-term economic agenda. The president has imposed steep levies on goods from foreign countries, igniting international furor, disrupting the global economy, sending markets into a tailspin and raising fears of a recession.

But the three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade unanimously found that IEEPA, which Trump invoked to unilaterally enact duties on foreign goods, "does not authorize" the tariffs and ordered them halted.

Separately on May 29, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from collecting tariffs from a pair of Illinois toy importers. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the administration May 29 not to collect tariffs from the comparnies Learning Resources and hand2mind, both based in Vernon Hills, Illinois, while the case is litigated.

The rulings were a blow to Trump's trade agenda, but White House officials have vowed to keep pressing the issue in court.

During her May 29 briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the Trump administration expects the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the issue. "The president's trade policies will continue," she said.