r/politics • u/sweatycat New York • 1d ago

California to Negotiate Trade With Other Countries to Bypass Trump Tariffs

https://www.newsweek.com/california-newsom-trade-trump-tariffs-2055414
92.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

6.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.8k

u/Mono_KS Foreign 1d ago

On one hand, this is unconstitutional and has no legal ground.

On the other, everything Trump does is unconstitutional and has no legal ground.

So fuck it.

326

u/LackingUtility 1d ago

On one hand, this is unconstitutional and has no legal ground.

Depends. It's not my area of expertise, but at least one way to do it that would be completely constitutional would be to convince other countries to exempt specific products - that just happen to primarily be made in California - from their tariffs. For example, China imposes a 34% tariff on American agricultural products except almonds, which it exempts. Good for California, which produces 80% of the world's almonds. Totally constitutional, as it's not some sort of per-state treaty.

I'm not sure how California would do the reverse. Perhaps a state subsidy on particular products (that it primarily imports from China)? That would be legal.

0

u/smartens419 1d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act#Constitutional_authority_for_foreign_relations

0

u/LackingUtility 1d ago

Yes, would you like it explained to you?

1

u/smartens419 1d ago

Sure, enlighten me on how that doesn't apply to Newsom negotiating with foreign countries during a trade war.

0

u/LackingUtility 1d ago

Sure, happy to help! State governments, like anyone else, are allowed to purchase things from foreign manufacturers. For example, if you buy something on Temu, you're not violating the Logan Act and interfering with a dispute between the US and China. That's also true for the California state government. They can even decide to exclusively buy products from Chinese manufacturers, and they are still not negotiating with a foreign government. And if that decision is encouraged by China exempting certain products from their own tariffs, that's also not a violation. None of this places any obligations on the US and therefore also doesn't interfere with the executive's power to negotiate treaties either.

2

u/smartens419 1d ago

This is all correct, and none of it addresses Newsom negotiating with foreign countries to remove certain products from their tariffs.