The End of Free-Range Tariffs: Discipline Comes to Trade Policy

Alden Abbott February 23, 2026

Truth on the Market View Original Source

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The Supreme Court just clipped one presidential tariff tool. It didn’t disarm U.S. trade policy. Properly used, the decision could push tariffs toward a more disciplined role: countering foreign market distortions and bargaining them away.

The Court’s Feb. 20 ruling striking down President Donald Trump’s tariff-setting authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not meaningfully weaken the president’s ability to deploy tariffs. It redirects that power. The decision creates an opening to use tariffs to target anticompetitive market distortions (ACMDs) imposed by trading partners, rather than to impose sweeping, untethered duties.

Read the full piece here.