US states sue to stop Trump’s latest global tariffs
Al Jazeera
Lawsuit is to stop the 10 percent tariffs that Trump immediately imposed after US Supreme Court struck down previously imposed tariffs.
A group of 24 states in the United States have sued US President Donald Trump’s administration in the first legal challenge to his newly imposed 10 percent global tariffs, alleging that the president cannot sidestep a recent US Supreme Court ruling that invalidated most of his previous tariffs on imported goods by citing new legal authority.
The Democratic-led states, including New York, California and Oregon, in the lawsuit on Thursday argue the new tariffs, which Trump announced immediately after the high court ruling on February 20, are also illegal.
Trump has said the tariffs are essential to reduce America’s longstanding trade deficits. He imposed duties under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 after the Supreme Court struck down tariffs he imposed last year under an emergency powers law.
Section 122, which has never been invoked, allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 15 percent. They are limited to five months, unless extended by Congress, and are meant to address short-term monetary emergencies, not routine trade deficits, according to the states’ lawsuit filed in the New York-based US Court of International Trade.
The balance-of-payments deficit measures in the Trade Act are primarily intended to address “archaic” monetary risks that existed when foreign governments could trade dollars for gold held by the US, according to the states. Trump, however, has misapplied that standard in an attempt to instead address US “trade deficits”, which occur when a nation imports more than it exports, according to the states.
