All the country-specific tariffs that Trump had imposed in his second term have now been struck down, as they were predicated on the IEEPA statute that the Supreme Court just determined does not authorize levies. But Trump has also implemented many product-specific tariffs that apply to categories of imports regardless of their country of origin under the authority of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, enacted in 1962.

Section 232 authorizes the president to impose tariffs on imports that “threaten to impair U.S. national security.” The Commerce Department must first conduct an "investigation" -- which is almost always pretextual -- ...

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