On August 3 (local time), according to Xinhua news agency, the US coalition of 25 states filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration in the US International Trade Court, claiming that the White House has exceeded its authority by imposing a series of new tariffs on goods imported from 60 trading partners.
The lawsuit opposes the 10% and 12.5% tariffs just applied to most goods imported from these economies. According to states, groups of countries and territories subject to tariffs currently account for 99.4% of US total import turnover.
The plaintiffs' alliance requested the court to declare the tax rates illegal, suspend enforcement and request the government to refund the entire amount of tax that the business has paid.
The focus of the lawsuit is that the Trump administration used Article 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, along with arguments related to forced labor, to maintain a broad tariff policy, after 2 previous versions of this program were rejected by federal courts.
According to the states, this is just a way to reimpose almost the entire previous tariff system, which was previously declared invalid by the US Supreme Court in February.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that the new tariffs are actually "a tax on working families", causing the prices of food, building materials, essential consumer goods and many daily life items to continue to increase.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield also said that this is the third lawsuit that the state has filed to protest against the Trump administration's tariff policies. He believes that the new tariffs are increasing costs for households and small businesses.
Meanwhile, New York State Attorney General Letitia James said that after failing in the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is seeking to use another legal basis to continue applying broad import tariffs.
Responding to the allegations, the White House affirmed that the tariffs under Article 301 are a "solid legal basis" trade tool, which has been used since President Trump's first term and is still in accordance with current law.
In addition to New York, the states participating in the lawsuit include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
According to Xinhua, this is also the second major lawsuit targeting the new tariff policy of the Trump administration, after a group of small businesses previously also filed a lawsuit arguing that the President could not use the new legal basis to circumvent the previous ruling of the Supreme Court.
