California led by Gavin Newsom sues Trump administration to block tariffs

New York — California on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to block US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign trading partners, accusing him of abusing his powers and inflicting financial harm on the state and nation.

Trump imposed 10% tariffs on goods from all countries and higher tariffs for countries the administration says have high barriers to US imports, most of which he later paused for 90 days. He also imposed a 145% tariff on China, with exceptions for certain electronics.

China has retaliated with a 125% tariff against the US, and the EU has approved tariffs to retaliate as well, though they are currently paused.

In executive orders imposing the tariffs, Trump has invoked laws including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which gives presidents special powers to combat unusual or extraordinary threats to the US.

The Republican president has said that the US’s net trade deficit relative to the rest of the world is a national emergency endangering its manufacturing capacity and making it dependent on foreign adversaries.

In Wednesday’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, California governor Gavin Newsom and attorney-general Rob Bonta, both Democrats, allege that the 1977 law does not give the president the power to impose sweeping tariffs without the consent of congress by unreasonably declaring a state of emergency.

California, which on its own would be the world’s fifth-largest economy and whose main trading partners are China, Mexico and Canada, has already been harmed and stands to be harmed further if the tariffs remain in place, Newsom and Bonta allege.

They are asking the court to bar the department of homeland security and customs and border protection from enforcing the tariffs.

The Trump administration already faces two similar lawsuits — one in the New York-based Court of International Trade by the business advocacy group Liberty Justice Centre seeking to block all of the tariffs, and the other lawsuit in Florida federal court by a small-business owner seeking to block the tariffs on China.

Reuters