Twelve states mount court challenge to Trump’s tariffs

New York — Twelve US states will ask a federal court on Wednesday to halt President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

The states argue he overstepped his authority by declaring a national emergency to impose across-the-board taxes on imports from nations that sell more to the US than they buy.

A three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade will hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic attorneys general of New York, Illinois, Oregon, and nine other states.

They say the Republican president has sought a “blank cheque” to regulate trade “at his whim.”

The states claim the president badly misinterpreted a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify the tariffs. The law is meant to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats to the US.

Trump has said the US’s decades-long history of importing more than it exports is a national emergency that has harmed US manufacturers. But the states argue the US trade deficit is not an “emergency” and that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs at all.

The same three-judge panel heard arguments last week in a similar case brought by five small businesses, and it is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks.

Oregon attorney-general Dan Rayfield said that the tariffs were raising prices for Oregon families and small businesses, and they will cost the average family an extra $3,800 a year.

“President Trump imposed his tariffs without Congress, public input, or restraint — and claims the courts can’t review his decisions,” Rayfield said. “This is a misuse of emergency powers.”

The justice department has said the states’ lawsuit should be dismissed because the states have only alleged “speculative economic losses” instead of concrete harms from the tariffs. It has also argued that only Congress, not US states or the courts, can challenge a national emergency declared by the president under IEEPA.

A DOJ spokesperson said the department “will continue to vigorously defend President Trump’s agenda to confront unfair trade practices in court.”

After imposing tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada in February, Trump imposed a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imports in April, with higher rates for countries with which the US has the largest trade deficits, particularly China.

Many of those country-specific tariffs were paused a week later, and the Trump administration temporarily reduced the steepest tariffs on China this month while working on a longer-term trade deal.

Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs have shocked US markets. He has framed them as a way to restore US manufacturing capability.

The states’ lawsuit is one of at least seven court challenges to Trump’s tariff policies. California has filed a separate challenge in federal court in San Francisco, and other lawsuits have been filed by businesses, legal advocacy groups and members of the Blackfeet Nation.

Decisions from the court, which hears disputes involving international trade and customs laws, can be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC and ultimately the US Supreme Court.

Reuters