President’s Withdrawal of Solar Panel Duties Exception Was Legal

The withdrawal of an exception for a type of solar panel from duties didn’t exceed the President’s powers, the Federal Circuit said on Monday.

The Trade Act of 1974 allows the president to modify previously adopted safeguards under the statute and “does not expressly indicate whether ‘modify’ includes trade-restrictive changes or is limited to trade liberalizing alterations,” Judge Leonard P. Stark, of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, said. The “statutory silence” supported the government’s argument that the statute doesn’t limit the president to adopting only trade-liberalizing changes, Stark said.

In 2018, President Trump imposed duties on ...