Congress Acquiesces to Tariffs by Fiat

Daniel J. IkensonThis post is to call your attention to a brand new paper of mine titled “Tariffs by Fiat: The Widening Chasm between U.S. Antidumping Policy and the Rule of Law. ” First, some background.Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress authority “to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises…and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” From the founding of the republic until the early 20th century, the separation of powers with respect to trade policy held up reasonably well. Congress controlled trade policy—mostly throug h tariff bills—and the president was consistently and properly deferential.The changing demands of a rapidly industrializing and expanding 20th century economy, including greater commercial interest in foreign markets, encouraged Congress to write and pass new laws both to facilitate and frustrate trade. Of course, new laws meant an expanded administrative role for the executive branch.Especially following World War II, as tariffs were lowered and international trade increased, Congress wanted to be sure domestic industries had recourse to new tariffs under certain circumstances, such as to respond to so ‐​called unfairly traded imports (antidumping and countervailing duty laws), a surge of imports that might cause serious injury to a domestic industry (Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974), unfair foreign practices abroad that impeded U.S. trade (Section 301 of the ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs