Bill Reinsch: Former US Under Secretary of Commerce on the Supreme Court decision around the legality of Trump's tariffs

One of Bill Clinton's former top officials says a crucial Supreme Court decision on tariffs probably won't go Donald Trump's way. 

The court's due to make a decision tomorrow on the legality of the US President's tariff regime. 

Former US Under Secretary of Commerce Bill Reinsch says it's a major decision. 

He told Mike Hosking the justices are being asked to determine the limits of presidential power. 

Reinsch says Trump won't want to give the tariff money back, but the court could force him to do so. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now to these Trump tariffs, a Supreme Court and the
potential fallout if he coun't convince the justices. Bill Runsch
is a former United States Under Secretary for Commas for
Industry and Security and as well as Bill. Would you
expect the Supreme Court to rule against the administration?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hard to tell from yesterday's hearing. The Justices enjoy torturing
both sides of the attorneys with difficult questions. My current
thinking is yes, they probably will go against the president,
either five to four or maybe six to three.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Okay, if they do that, are refunds going to be
the outworking or is that not real?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, under the law they should be provided the administration
can make it hard or easy. There's an established procedure
for doing that. There's paperwork involved. Trump may not want
to give the money back, but if the Justice's ruled
that the terroriffs were illegally collected, he'll have to give
them back. He may make it just very difficult for

(00:57):
businesses to actually do that.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Got missions in the lead up to the sign of
a couple of things that I assume you know about
Section three I wanted the Trade ACTE of seventy four
and also Section two three two of the Trade Expansion
Act of sixty two. He said, they're alternatives, are they?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, They're not as good because they have a lot
of procedural speed bumps that have to be employed.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
But I think that they'll be used.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean, what I've been telling people is that, you know,
the decision the court makes is going to be really
important for the powers of the presidency and the way
our government works. But for the businesses that are affected
by the tariffs, I don't think it'll make a lot
of difference. Trump will reimpose the tariffs using these different laws,
He'll be sued again, he'll lose again, and then he'll

(01:42):
try something else.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
So I and the courts so far.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Have rule that the tariffs can stay in place as
long as the lawsuits are going on. So I don't
see an immediate change for the companies that are affected.
But it's a big decision in terms of the limitation
on the president's.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, what about the economic that's the political side of
the legal side. What about the economic I'd read the
other day Levi Strauss and putting up their prices because
they can to cover the tariffs.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
How much?

Speaker 1 (02:09):
How long before the average American goes. You know what,
I'm over it.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
We're estimating later this year or Q one next year
when you'll see most of the impact. It's been delayed,
you know, because he delayed the tariffs, and because there
was a lot of stockpiling in the anticipation of the tariffs,
and we're just.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Now working our way through that.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
A lot of the Christmas stuff, the holiday stuff came
in in the summer before the terrorifts went into effect.
So I'd looked at the big impact next year, early
next year.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
We'll get you back on sooon billip and joined your company.
Bill runs who's the former United States Under Secretary of
Commis for Industry and Security that was in the Clinton administration.
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