US tariffs to stay in effect while litigation proceeds, appeals court rules

A US federal appeals court on June 10 granted President Donald Trump's request to keep sweeping tariffs on China and many of the US' trade partners in effect, while expediting its consideration of lawsuits challenging the measures, which have impacted a number of commodity markets.

In its order, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said it granted a stay of the US Court of International Trade's rulings that had suspended some of Trump's executive orders imposing tariffs.

The court determined that the stay was warranted but deemed that the lawsuits were of "exceptional importance," necessitating expedited consideration. The appeals court ordered the parties to file a proposed briefing schedule within two business days, allowing for oral arguments on July 31.

The court had on May 29 temporarily paused the trade court's ruling that had invalidated Trump's emergency tariffs.

The lawsuits ask the court to rule on whether the president has the authority to levy taxes and tariffs, rather than the US Congress. Trump had invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in imposing his tariffs, becoming the first president to use the 1977 law for that purpose.

Meanwhile, China and the US made a significant advancement in stabilizing their economic relationship, a top Chinese trade official said June 11, following two days of high-level talks in London, providing hope that the tariff tensions could be resolved.

The two sides have agreed on a "principled framework" aimed at implementing prior agreements, said Li Chenggang, China's vice minister of commerce and international trade representative, including a deal reached in Geneva in May to lower tariffs that both countries later accused each other of reneging on.

Trump has made tariffs the core of his economic and foreign policy, roiling commodities markets.

In February, he ordered a 25% tariff on all goods flowing from Mexico and Canada, in a bid to deal with fentanyl smuggling across both borders, and imposed a 20% tariff on China for similar reasons, which the court refers to as "trafficking tariffs."

Trump also imposed April 2 a global 10% tariff on all imports to the US and variable "reciprocal" tariffs on most countries. Although most of these have been modified or paused, the court on May 28 struck down both sets of duties as exceeding the president's authority.

The global retaliatory orders referred to those that the administration imposed on all imports from trading partners, currently in place at 10% for all countries, with country-specific rates slated to start July 9.

The ebb and flow of US tariff announcements and countermeasures heightened the volatility in oil prices. Platts Dated Brent hit a 2025 high on Jan. 15 at $83.06/b, then sank to $62.69/b on April 9 in the wake of Trump's tariffs announcement. They have since recovered to $69.60/b on June 10, according to the assessments from Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The Platts JKM marker for LNG similarly slid from a high of $17.123/MMBtu on Feb. 10 to a low of $10.614/MMBtu on April 29, with the most recent assessment at $12.301/MMBtu on June 10.