Tariffs by Other Means: When Law Defines US Grand Strategy

America’s latest tariffs are not a story about forced labour; they show how domestic constitutional constraints are reshaping US geopolitical power.

The Constitution Has Entered America’s Trade War

The administration’s response has been swift and revealing, and it came in two stages rather than one. Within hours of the ruling, Trump invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974—a narrower authority that permits a president to impose tariffs of up to 15 percent for balance-of-payments purposes, but only for 150 days unless Congress affirmatively extends them. That statutory clock was itself a concession to Congress’s taxing power, and it was always a stopgap. As it approached expiry, the administration reached for a sturdier vehicle: Section 301 of the same 1974 Act, which allows tariffs in response to “unreasonable” or discriminatory foreign trade practices found through a formal USTR (United States Trade Representative) investigation. Following an inquiry launched in March, proposed in June, and finalized this July after two rounds of hearings and more than 2,100 public comments, USTR imposed new tariffs of 10 to 12.5 percent on sixty economies—representing roughly 99 percent of US imports—replacing the expiring Section 122 duties. This time, however, the justification is no longer trade deficits or economic emergencies. It is forced labour. USTR’s finding was blunt: every one of the sixty economies, from major allies to the European Union itself, was judged to have either no ban on forced-labour imports or one that goes unenforced, creating what the agency called an unfair burden on American producers.

This legal pivot deserves far more attention than the tariff rates themselves. The........

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