Congressional and Presidential Authority to Impose Import Tariffs

This report examines Congress’s constitutional power over import tariffs, Congress’s ability to delegate tariff authority to the President within constitutional limits, the scope of specific authorities Congress has delegated to the President to impose or adjust tariffs, and the ways in which courts have resolved challenges to the President’s use of those authorities. The report also provides an overview of legal debates surrounding recent tariff actions by the President. The Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate foreign commerce, impose tariffs, and collect revenue. As discussed in this report, Congress has long enacted laws authorizing the President to adjust tariff rates on goods in certain circumstances. Courts have generally upheld these laws against constitutional challenges, holding that they do not impermissibly delegate Congress’s legislative power over tariffs to the executive branch. This report also examines how courts have resolved legal challenges to the President’s use of statutory tariff authorities. Courts have traditionally given deference to the President, allowing the President to impose and modify tariffs unless he “clearly misconstrues” the scope of his authority and holding that these statutes commit certain matters to the President’s unreviewable discretion. Some litigants and commentators question if lower federal courts must revisit aspects of this approach in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, which limited the ability of the executive branch to interpret its own statutory authorities. Several statutes currently authorize the President or an executive agency to impose tariffs under various circumstances. This report provides an introduction to five such statutes: Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962; Sections 122, 201, and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974; and Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. These laws afford varying degrees of discretion to the President. For example, some of these statutes require an executive agency to conduct an investigation and make certain findings as a prerequisite to raising tariffs, and some set maximum limits on the duration or magnitude of tariffs they may be used to impose. This report summarizes how the most recent presidential administrations have used various statutes to impose or raise tariffs, as well as how courts have resolved challenges to some of these actions. It provides an overview of the Supreme Court’s February 2026 decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, which invalidated the President’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to impose tariffs, and discusses how that decision and the underlying litigation may impact the President’s use of other statutory authorities. Finally, this report considers selected proposals by Members of Congress to change the current scope of the President’s tariff authorities. While some Members have sought to delegate additional tariff authorities to the President, others view the President’s existing authorities as overly expansive and have sought to reassert congressional control over import tariffs by repealing or amending those authorities.