General Discussion

"How much of a constraint this is, however, remains to be seen," notes Clark Packard, a research fellow at the Cato Institute. "If Congress declines to act, the administration could, at least in theory, allow the tariffs to lapse, declare a new balance-of-payments emergency, and restart the clock. The maneuver would raise serious separation-of-powers concerns, but nothing in the statute clearly forbids it."