Trump Tariffs on Canada Spark Latest Lawsuit Over Trade Powers
A legal group that has successfully sued to scuttle President Trump’s past tariffs filed another court challenge on Tuesday, this time targeting the steep duties that he has imposed as part of an ongoing trade war with Canada.The lawsuit marked the fourth major case brought by the Liberty Justice Center, which once again asked a panel of federal judges to invalidate Mr.Trump’s actions on grounds that he had overstepped the law in ways that harmed American businesses.The emerging battle concerned the president’s use of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a long-dormant section of a decades-old trade statute meant to protect U.S.
industry from unreasonable foreign practices.In September, Mr.
Trump became the first president to enforce that power as part of a trade spat with Canada, which he has accused of discriminating against American industries.The president’s tariffs, set at 50 percent, applied to a small yet shifting set of Canadian imports, including some alcoholic beverages, dairy products, hockey sticks, paper goods and more.Mr.
Trump chose those items based on a belief that Ottawa had applied undue burdens to certain categories of U.S.products, a move that quickly prompted Canada to retaliate — and set off a tit-for-tat cycle that threatened to damage both economies.The Liberty Justice Center filed its lawsuit on behalf of Gellert Global Group, a food importer and distributor based in New Jersey, which said it could face an estimated $40 million annually in taxes applied to Canadian cheese.
The case challenged both Mr.Trump’s specific implementation of the duties and the broader constitutionality of Section 338.The fate of Mr.
Trump’s tactics now rests with the Court of International Trade, a specialized circuit that has repeatedly ruled against the White House and its tariffs in recent months.A victory could further embolden Mr.
Trump against Canada or other countries, while a defeat would force the administration to pay back the money...