A group of 25 states led by Democratic officials has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s administration over its recent tariffs, arguing that the president has exceeded his legal authority in implementing these levies. The lawsuit, submitted to the US Court of International Trade on Monday, August 3, targets the new double-digit tariffs placed on 60 trading partners last month. The administration alleges that these partners were not doing enough to prevent the importation of goods produced with forced labour.
These tariffs took effect just as temporary tariffs imposed by Trump expired, following a Supreme Court ruling in February that struck down his primary “liberation day” tariffs. New York Attorney General Letitia James commented, “After losing at the Supreme Court, the administration is once again trying to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs.”
The states involved in the lawsuit, which includes Oregon and New York, all have Democratic attorneys general or governors. In response, White House spokesman Kush Desai stated that the tariffs are an appropriate and legal reaction to unfair trade practices by other countries.
“A foreign country’s failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is unreasonable and burdens US commerce, including American workers, and must be addressed,” Desai said.
Revive US manufacturing
Trump, who argues that high tariffs will revive US manufacturing, last year overturned decades of Washington policy that favoured lower tariffs and ever-freer trade. Invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he imposed double-digit tariffs on imports from almost every country, saying the US’s longstanding trade deficit amounted to a national emergency.
But the Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA did not authorise tariffs. The decision forced the administration to establish a refund process for importers who had paid the tariffs. Eager to make up the lost revenue, Trump turned to temporary 10 percent worldwide tariffs, but they expired at midnight on July 24.
The latest round of global tariffs was imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, meant to combat unfair or discriminatory economic practices by other nations. The tariffs imposed in July affect more than 99 percent of US imports.
The states’ complaint, like two previous lawsuits filed by small businesses over the tariffs, argued that the new tariffs used “forced labor” as a pretext to re-impose the tariffs that had already been ruled illegal in court. They said that a sweeping tax on imports would do nothing to address the real problems of forced labour around the world.
Source: Winifred Lartey
