A group of 25 US states governed by Democrats has filed a joint lawsuit against Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs. The President of the United States approved a new batch of trade levies ranging from 10% to 12.5% on more than 90 countries a couple of weeks ago, arguing that they violated regulations related to forced labor.
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In reality, the Republican leader was trying to avoid a legal vacuum because the universal tariff that was in place until then was about to expire. So he resorted to a new legal route, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, to justify the new trade offensive.
A group of small businesses sued the Trump Administration a few hours after the new levies came into effect. “The lawsuit argues that the government cannot maintain a predetermined global tariff policy simply by switching from one law to another,” says Liberty Justice Center, the organization representing small companies in court.
Now it is states representing half of the country’s territories that are challenging the new tariffs in court. New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin filed a lawsuit this Monday before the United States International Trade Court in Manhattan.
The lawsuit basically accuses the Republican president and his administration of illegally using Section 301 to replace previous tariffs that were overturned by the United States Supreme Court or had already expired.
“After the defeat in the Supreme Court, the [Trump] Administration is once again trying to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, in statements reported by Bloomberg. “No matter how much the Administration tries to justify it, the law and our Constitution are clear: the president does not have the authority to impose widespread tariffs on any country he pleases,” she added.
Trump has tried to rebuild his tariff wall with this latest block of tariffs on 60 economies, including the European Union, after the setback dealt by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The Court ruled the reciprocal tariffs he approved in April 2025 on all his trading partners unconstitutional, under the pretext of addressing the chronic trade deficit suffered by the United States.
After losing before the Supreme Court, Trump approved a universal 10% tariff, but it was only valid for 150 days and required Congress’s approval to extend it. Faced with the inability to get the Capitol’s approval for this trade policy measure, the Trump Administration devised another route before the universal tariff expired. The solution was found in Section 301, which requires prior investigations by the United States Trade Authority.
This agency opened two investigations: one on 60 economies for not having taken sufficient measures to control imports of goods produced through forced labor. This is the one approved on July 24 and has been challenged in court by a group of small businesses and the 25 Democratic states.
The other investigation targets 16 countries accused of overproduction, a practice that drives prices down and harms domestic producers. This investigation has not yet concluded.
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