‘Trade deficit is not the same as balance of payments deficit’: Geeta Gopinath backs Neil Katyal’s support for Trump’s 15% tariff move

Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath has backed Indian-American lawyer Neil Katyal in challenging US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 15% global tariffs.Responding to Katyal’s post on

Katir earlier criticized Trump’s move, saying the president cannot bypass Congress and impose broad tariffs. He noted that the U.S. Department of Justice had previously argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that Section 122 did not clearly apply to situations driven by trade deficits.“It appears difficult for the President to rely on the 15 percent statute (Section 122) when his Justice Department told the court in our case the opposite,” Katyill wrote. He added that if Trump believed such tariffs were justified, “he should do what America does and go to Congress,” emphasizing that the Constitution gives lawmakers, not the president, primary power over taxes.

Katyill’s role in Trump’s Supreme Court setback

Katir recently played a central role in a major Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of the tariffs Trump had earlier imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Representing a coalition of small businesses and trade groups, Katyal successfully argued that the government had exceeded its legal powers.The court ruled 6-3 that the emergency powers law did not give the president sweeping authority to impose broad tariffs, reaffirming that taxing authority rests primarily with Congress. The ruling marks a major constitutional setback for Trump’s trade measures and limits the use of emergency powers to justify tariffs.

Who is Neil Katyll?

Khadir was born in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents and is one of the most famous Indian-American lawyers in the United States. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, he clerked for Judge Stephen Breyer and later served as Acting Solicitor General under President Barack Obama.He has argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court and is currently a partner at Milbank LLP and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Cartier is known for his constitutional expertise and has handled a number of high-profile cases involving executive power, civil rights and national security.