If the Supreme Court rules that Trump’s IEEPA tariffs are out the window, what other options does the administration have? Lots, it turns out.

A few years ago, Zach Hubert noticed a problem. Chinese pea protein was flooding the U.S. market at insanely low prices.

“They were selling it for 30 to 40% the cost to manufacture that same pea protein,” he said.

Hubert is the corporate development manager at Minnesota based PURIS, which manufactures pea protein that goes into shakes, bars, and pet food. PURIS was losing business. So it petitioned the U.S. government for help — and got it.

“The U.S. International Trade Commission imposed duties ranging from 127% to 626% on all imports of pea protein from China,” he said.

These are antidumping and countervailing duties — they’re the most surgical tariffs there are, they can be specific to individual companies or products.

“The next, bigger level is where we generally go after a country,” said Nicole Bivens Collinson, head of international trade and government relations at Sandler Travis and Rosenberg. 

If a whole country has shady trade practices like stealing technology, there’s a tariff for that. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 was used against China in the first Trump administration.

The president can also dust off tariffs from as far back as 1930 that have never or rarely been used. There’s Section 338 tariffs for when countries discriminate against the U.S., Section 122 tariffs if there’s an economic crisis around trade or currency flows. 

But wait, there’s more!

“If the president believes there are certain imports that are entering the United States that threaten our national security, then you can take action as well,” Bivens Collinson said.

National security tariffs apply to a whole industry across all countries, currently on steel and aluminum. They first require an investigation, and there are many on the way.

“We’ve got investigations on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, drones, wind turbines and their parts,” Bivens Collinson said.

That is a very partial list. Most of these ‘plan B’ tariffs require investigations, or have time limits on them, or eventually need authorization from Congress. Which is probably why they were not President Trump’s first choice. But, he’s got options.

A (partial) list of potential plan B tariffs

The president has a range of options when it comes to tariffs, from surgical to broad, from routine to arcane. Here are the highlights:

Anti-dumping and countervailing duties

These are the most surgical tariffs there are, they can target individual products or companies. These usually start off as a complaint from a U.S. company about unfair underselling or “dumping” of possibly subsidized foreign products into the U.S. market.

They don’t require authorization from Congress but also aren’t directly up to the president — they’re decided through a semi-judicial process involving an investigation and analysis of the particular issue.

They date back to the Tariff Act of 1930.

Safeguard tariffs (Section 201)

From the Trade Act of 1974, these apply to a product across all (or most) countries.

They can be used for a sudden disruptive surge of foreign imports, or to avoid a game of whackamole where a foreign company found guilty of dumping tries to reroute its product through other countries.

National security tariffs (Section 232)

From the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, these apply when an import threatens national security. For example, if cheap imports would kill an industry that the U.S. needs to be located within its borders for national security reasons.

These apply to all (or most) countries.

They are currently in effect on steel and aluminum, and require an investigation first.  There are many on the way: on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, critical minerals and rare earth elements, airplanes and jet engines and parts, polysilicon, drones, wind turbines and their parts, PPE, medical consumables and medical equipment and devices, robotics and industrial machinery.

Unfair foreign practices (Section 301)

These tariffs date to the Trade Act of 1974.  These are tariffs for use on goods from a country that has unfair trade practices against the U.S.

They  can be applied to all products from an entire country, and were used against China in the first Trump administration for IP theft and forced technology transfer.

These tariffs require an investigation to be conducted first.

Anti-discrimination tariffs (Section 338)

These go back to the Tariff Act of 1930, and they are for use against countries that discriminate against the U.S. in their trade policy.

No formal investigation is required, the president just needs to make a determination that a country is discriminating and notify Congress.

These tariffs can go up to 50%, and have basically been dormant since World War II.

Balance of payments emergency (Section 122)

These are tariffs for when there is a crisis in the U.S.’s balance of payments — which could be through a trade imbalance or imbalanced financial flows.  Most economists do not believe such a crisis is currently taking place.

These tariffs may go up to 15% for 150 days. Congress must extend them after that.

Special thanks to: Nicole Bivens Collinson, managing principal and operating committee member at Sandler Travis and Rosenberg, and Emily Blanchard, associate professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.