A group of 25 states filed a lawsuit on Aug. 3 against President Donald Trump’s newest tariffs imposed on Europe and other countries, claiming the U.S. Supreme Court has already found them to be illegal in a similar case.
Trump imposed tariffs last month on more than 60 trading partners, including the European Union, alleging the countries failed to enforce bans on forced labor.
The tariff rates ranged between 10 percent and 12.5 percent and started July 24, prior to the expiration of the temporary tariffs Trump put in place following a Supreme Court defeat in February.
“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,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “No matter how the administration tries to justify it, the law and our Constitution are clear that the president does not have the power to impose sweeping tariffs on whatever countries he wants.”
New York is joined by California, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit, filed before the U.S. Court of International Trade, alleges the Trump administration is using the forced labor human rights issue as a pretext to reintroduce import taxes that the Supreme Court has already declared illegal.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called Trump’s tariffs “rushed” and questioned his administration’s legal authority to impose them.
“Rather than accepting [court] losses, President Trump again turned to another law … and directed the United States Trade Representative to investigate the European Union and nearly 60 other countries, ostensibly to determine whether those countries are doing enough to combat forced labor in global trade, and to consider tariffs pursuant to those investigations,” Bonta’s office stated in a statement.
U.S. Trade Representative James Greer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Greer defended the administration’s use of Section 301 to impose the tariffs, telling Fox News on July 27 the United States is the only country that has a law to address forced labor.
“We’re the only country in the world that has this kind of law and effectively enforces it, believe it or not,” Greer said. “We investigated 60 economies to assess whether they had these types of laws and whether they implement them. Only a handful have this and they didn’t implement them, and the rest didn’t have them at all. We’re taking action to make sure our workers and companies have a level playing field.”
Section 301 is already being used to impose tariffs on China, Greer said.
