BIARRITZ, France — President Donald Trump is threatening to use the emergency authority granted by a powerful, but obscure federal law to make good on his tweeted “order” to U.S. businesses to cut ties in China amid a trade war between the two nations.
China’s announcement that it was raising tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports sent Trump into a rage.
Trump, in a tweet, declared American companies “are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China.” He later clarified he was threatening to make use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act .
He seems to want to rely on that 1977 act — which is used to target terrorists, rogue regimes and drug traffickers — as the newest weapon in the clash between the world’s two largest economies.
Zeke Miller, The Associated Press
