Trump tariffs can stay in place for now: Appeals court

A federal appeals court in the USA has ruled that President Donald Trump can keep collecting import taxes for now.

The court granted a bid from the White House to temporarily suspend the lower court's order, which ruled that Trump had overstepped his power by imposing the duties.

Wednesday's judgement from the US Court of International Trade drew the ire of Trump officials, who called it an example of judicial overreach.

Small businesses and a group of states had challenged the measures, which are at the heart of Trump's agenda and have shaken up the world economic order.

In its appeal, the Trump administration said the decision issued by the trade court a day earlier had improperly second-guessed the president and threatened to unravel months of hard-fought trade negotiations.

"The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy," it said in the filing.

Shortly before Thursday's tariff reprieve from the appeals court, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing: "America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges."

On Thursday, another federal court overseeing a separate tariffs case reached a similar conclusion to the trade court.

Judge Rudolph Contreras found the duties went beyond the president's authority, but his ruling only applied to a toy company in the case.