A fifty-year-old trade law allows a single leader to bypass global courts to impose tariffs
Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act grants the U.S. executive branch the unique power to bypass international courts and unilaterally impose tariffs to address perceived unfair trade practices.
A Cold War-era legal mechanism known as Section 301 allows the U.S. President to impose significant trade barriers without seeking a mandate from the World Trade Organization. While the law was used sparingly for decades, it has recently facilitated $380 billion in levies, with duties on specific sectors like steel reaching up to 100 percent. Unlike the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, which applied broad duties averaging 59 percent, Section 301 is a surgical tool used to target intellectual property theft valued at $600 billion annually.