President Donald Trump is opening a new chapter in his playbook by invoking a tariff authority that no previous president has ever used — a move that could reshape future trade wars.Trump used a little-known provision of the 1930 Tariff Act to impose 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods.Known as Section 338, the nearly century-old law gives the president broad authority to impose duties on imports from countries deemed to discriminate against U.S.commerce.
Its first-ever use by a U.S.president could establish a new legal blueprint for future trade disputes.Canada, one of America's top trading partners, is the first country targeted under the long-dormant authority, with 50% tariffs covering exports ranging from wine and hockey sticks to cement, dairy products and furniture.TRUMP BET TARIFFS WOULD BRING BACK AMERICAN FACTORY JOBS.
NEW REPORT SAYS IT DIDN'T WORKThe latest tariffs add another point of friction in the already strained trade relationship between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.(Jim Watson/Getty Images)In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney criticized the tariffs as the latest in a series of U.S.
trade actions he said violate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement while reaffirming Canada's commitment to negotiations.The new duties are expected to take effect in the next 30 days."The significant thing is Trump uncorked a new tariff statute that has never been used and is pretty wide open in terms of the president's supposed power to impose tariffs," Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, told Fox News Digital."It's a lot more about what could be coming and the new uncertainty that just got injected into a multi-trillion-dollar trading environment."The law has taken on added significance since the Supreme Court ruled against the administration's use of emergency powers for Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, prompting new interest in alternative legal authorities.Against that backdrop, Lincic...