Trump administration sued by 25 states over new tariffs on trading partners

A coalition of 25 states led by Democratic attorneys general and governors has initiated legal action against the Trump administration's recent tariff regime, filed in the US Court of International Trade. The new double-digit tariffs target 60 trading partners and were justified by the administration as a response to insufficient efforts to prevent the importation of goods produced through forced labour.

The timing of these tariffs is significant, as they took effect immediately after temporary tariffs expired on July 24. The administration had previously relied on temporary 10 percent worldwide tariffs following a Supreme Court decision in February that invalidated the president's earlier "liberation day" tariffs, which had been imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That ruling forced the administration to establish a refund mechanism for importers who had paid those earlier levies.

The current tariffs operate under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision designed to address unfair or discriminatory trade practices. According to the states' legal complaint, these new tariffs affect more than 99 percent of US imports and represent an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's earlier decision by using forced labour concerns as justification.

New York Attorney General Letitia James characterized the action as an illegal tax increase on American families and businesses following the administration's courtroom defeat. The White House responded through spokesman Kush Desai, defending the tariffs as a lawful and appropriate response to unfair trade practices, arguing that nations failing to enforce prohibitions on forced-labour goods burden US commerce and American workers.

The lawsuit joins two previous legal challenges filed by small businesses contesting the tariffs. All three cases argue that the forced-labour rationale serves as a pretext for reimposing tariffs already deemed illegal by the courts, and that broad import taxes fail to address the underlying forced-labour problem globally.