U.S. food importer sues Trump over 50% tariffs on Canadian goods

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An American food importer has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and his administration over the U.S. president’s 50% tariff on Canadian goods.

The Liberty Justice Center said it filed the court action Tuesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade to challenge Trump’s use of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 on behalf Gellert Global Group.

The non-profit law firm states in the 37-page complaint that the Trump administration exceeded its statutory authority, which caused immediate harm to American businesses, their suppliers and customers.

Also named in the suit are Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“This case is not about the president. It is about the presidency,” Liberty Justice Center Chairman and CEO Sara Albrecht said in a statement.

“No president should have the power to pull a dormant statute off the shelf and use it to impose sweeping tariffs or import bans without the limits Congress required.”

Depression-era statute

The law firm explained that the Depression-era statute, which is part of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, is on the books for specific foreign discrimination against U.S. commerce and not an all-purpose authorization for the president to impose sweeping tariffs or import restrictions during trade disputes.

The White House has argued that tariffs are needed to reshore American manufacturing and reduce trade deficits with other countries.

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In July, Trump signed an executive order implementing 50% tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods that went into effect on Aug. 22. After trade talks failed, the Canadian government responded with counter tariffs on American goods on Sept. 8.

“Congress already gave the executive branch a tool for responding to unfair foreign trade practices: Section 301, which requires an investigation, public comment and other safeguards,” said Jeffrey M. Schwab, a senior counsel at the law firm.

“The administration cannot skip those protections by reaching for a 1930 statute that no president had ever used to impose a tariff.”

Tariffs not justified, suit says

The lawsuit argues that Canadian trade policies identified by Trump do not justify the sweeping tariffs his administration imposed. Two of the measures Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government implemented were in response to the president’s own tariffs, while the third involved Canadian dairy policies governed by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the court filing states.

The suit said the Trump administration also imposed tariffs on products that were unrelated to the alleged discrimination including Canadian cheese, which was added to tariff lists to address provincial liquor bans and automobile tariffs.

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Gellert Global Group, a third-generation family-run food business based in New Jersey, said one of its cheese suppliers is being hit with both U.S. and Canadian tariffs because it purchases milk from dairy farmers in upstate New York, which then processes it into brie in Canada before it ships the finished product back to the U.S.

“Gellert Global Group has spent generations building trusted relationships with suppliers, customers and partners across the food industry,” Co-CEO Thomas Gellert said. “These tariffs disrupt those relationships overnight and create costs and uncertainty that ripple through the entire supply chain.”

Wants court to declare tariffs unlawful

The law firm said it is not asking the New York-based court to rule on whether tariffs are good economic policy but whether Trump is following the letter of the law. It wants the court to declare the administration’s tariffs unlawful, block their collection and order refunds, with interest, to the importers who paid them.

It has already successfully challenged Trump’s tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and is challenging the use of Section 122 and the administration’s attempt to use Section 301 as a replacement option for broad global tariffs.