Greer: Trump Can Still Restrict Spain Trade Under IEEPA Law
Trade Representative Greer says IEEPA gives Trump power to halt trade with Spain, even after the Supreme Court struck down broad tariffs.
The Trump administration retains legal authority to halt trade with Spain under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, U.S. Trade Representative Greer said, signaling the White House is not done leveraging the sweeping national-security statute despite a major judicial setback.
President Trump had previously invoked IEEPA to impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world, a broad application of the law that the Supreme Court ultimately struck down. The high court's ruling removed those import duties, but Greer's comments suggest the administration views IEEPA as still potent for targeted trade actions against individual nations.
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The distinction Greer appears to be drawing is significant: rather than applying the law as a blanket global tariff mechanism, the administration could use it more narrowly to restrict or suspend trade specifically with Spain, a move that may face a different legal calculus than the sweeping duties the Court rejected.
The development underscores the ongoing tension between executive branch ambitions to reshape U.S. trade relationships and the constitutional limits the courts are willing to enforce. Analysts note that targeted country-specific actions under IEEPA may be harder to challenge than the near-universal tariffs that drew judicial scrutiny.
How the administration proceeds — and whether any Spain-specific action would survive legal challenge — remains an open question, but Greer's statement puts trading partners and markets on notice that the White House views its IEEPA toolkit as far from exhausted. Continue reading at US Top News and Analysis.
