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Domino effect of US tariff ruling will unfold slowly

Other legal dominoes like the H-1B visas could fall.

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Mr Trump spent a year trying to recalibrate the US trade relationship with China through a tool the Supreme Court ruled he never legally possessed.

US President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping after a bilateral meeting in South Korea in October 2025.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Cory Alpert

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US President Donald Trump briefly addressed the Supreme Court justices who attended his annual

State of the Union speech

, calling their ruling, which ended his signature tariff plan, “very unfortunate”.

In that 6-3 ruling, the court

invalidated his ability to levy his alleged “reciprocal tariffs”

– the core of his tariff regime. In an instant, hundreds of billions of dollars in trade levies became legally unenforceable.

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