A coalition of 25 states, led by Democratic attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration on Monday to challenge the latest round of tariffs applied to imports from 60 countries and economies. The plaintiffs maintain that the measure exceeds the legal powers of the Executive and will cause an increase in costs for consumers and companies in the country.

The complaint was filed with the United States Court of International Trade and requests that the levies be suspended, declared illegal and that the government refund customs duties already paid by importers.

The tariffs, set between 10% and 12.5% ​​for most of the affected products, reach imports from countries that, according to the states, represent 99.4% of the total volume of goods that the United States buys abroad. “Following the Supreme Court defeat, the administration is once again attempting to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the main drivers of the lawsuit.

States question the legal basis of the new taxes

The center of the dispute revolves around the use of Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Trump administration argued that the tariffs respond to investigations into the use of forced labor in international supply chains and that they seek to protect American workers and industry. However, the lawsuit maintains that the government used that legislation as a mechanism to reestablish, under a new legal basis, a tariff regime that was previously rejected by the courts.

The states allege that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), headed by Jamieson Greer, accelerated investigations into 60 economies without conducting mandatory individual consultations or justifying why it applied virtually uniform rates to countries with very different trading conditions.

“There is no rational relationship between the alleged problem of forced labor in international supply chains and the widespread global tariffs imposed by the USTR,” the lawsuit states. Prosecutors also maintain that Section 301 only allows trade measures to be imposed after investigating unfair practices by a specific country and requires that sanctions be aimed at correcting that conduct, conditions that, they say, were not met.

The White House defends the measure and anticipates the judicial battle

The White House rejected the accusations and defended the legality of the trade policy. “The United States Government is using its legal authority to achieve the elimination of unreasonable acts, policies and practices that harm American commerce,” said spokesman Kush Desai.

He added that the lack of effective controls against products made with forced labor affects American workers and that “Section 301 tariffs have proven to be a legally sound tool since the president's first term.”

The lawsuit also questions that the USTR exempted from the new taxes some products previously identified as linked to forced labor, including frozen meat from Brazil, which, according to the states, contradicts the official justification of the measure.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the tariffs “a tax on working families” and warned that they could increase the prices of food, construction materials, household items and other everyday consumer products.

This is the second major court challenge against Trump's new tariff policy. Weeks ago, a group of small businesses also filed a lawsuit considering that the government lacks the authority to reinstate levies similar to those that were previously invalidated by the Supreme Court. The new litigation could again define the scope of the presidential power to modify US trade policy through executive actions.

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