Small Businesses Sue to Block Trump’s New Tariffs on 60 Trade Partners

3 articles · Updated · NBC News · Jul 24

Two small businesses filed suit in the Court of International Trade less than a day after the new duties took effect, seeking to halt enforcement and win refunds of tariffs already collected.
Liberty Justice Center argues the U.S. Trade Representative imposed near-uniform tariffs on 60 materially different economies without the country-specific findings and remedies Section 301 requires.
The new tariffs replaced Trump’s temporary 10% global duty at midnight, setting rates mostly between 10% and 12.5% with exceptions for some foods, fuels, autos and certain metals.
USTR says months-long investigations found the 60 economies failed to effectively block imports made with forced labor, but the EU, Brazil and Japan quickly rejected that rationale.
The case marks another test of Trump’s tariff powers after the same legal group previously won a Supreme Court ruling against tariffs imposed under a different statute.