OPINION:
Peter Navarro is correct in his recent Commentary piece, but he draws the wrong inference from his interpretation of the Constitution (“At the Supreme Court, a debate over whether tariffs are taxes,” Web, Nov. 10).
Article 1 Section 8 gives Congress, not the president, the power to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” The International Emergency Powers Act, cited by Mr. Navarro, was certainly not intended to override Section 8. It was intended to give the president the limited power to temporarily block the importation of goods “during the pendency of an investigation,” not to give him the unrestricted power to levy new tariffs and modify trade relations worldwide.
That — not whether tariffs are taxes — is the question on which the Supreme Court will rule.
CLARKE ELLIS
Bethesda, Maryland
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