US President Donald Trump claims absolute right to impose tariffs following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down previous duties, as new trade investigations begin.

ISTANBUL: United States President Donald Trump declared he possesses “the absolute right” to enact new tariffs following a Supreme Court decision that found many of his previous import duties unlawful.

Trump criticised the court on his Truth Social platform, alleging it had “unnecessarily ransacked” the US and “decided to, potentially, give away trillions of dollars to countries and companies that have been taking advantage of the United States for decades.”

The Supreme Court ruled in February that a law intended for national emergencies did not legally justify numerous tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on countries worldwide.

Trump subsequently introduced 10% tariffs on goods from much of the world using a different statute, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, though these measures are set to expire in July after 150 days.

The president had also promised to increase this temporary tariff to 15%, a change he has not yet implemented.

US officials initiated several trade investigations last week, potentially paving the way for a new round of permanent tariffs to replace those overturned by the court.

“Our Supreme Court has made these countries very happy, but, as the court pointed out, I have the absolute right to charge tariffs in another form, and have already started to do so,” Trump wrote.

The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, did not state that the president has an absolute right to impose tariffs in another form.

 The Sun Malaysia