Donald Trump's tariffs are back in court. 24 states attack the president

Attorneys general from 24 Democrat-led states filed a joint lawsuit on Thursday over new global tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. The plaintiffs argue that the new tariffs are also illegal.

The lawsuit was filed with the Court of International Trade by the attorneys general of Oregon, California, Arizona and New York, supported by the authorities of 20 other Democratic-led states. The complaint says the new tariffs on goods from around the world, imposed by Trump after he repealed the tariffs under the IEEPA sanctions law, break the law and violate the constitutional separation of powers.

New tariffs – currently they are 10%, but according to Trump's announcement they are to be increased to 15%. – were imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act 1974. These provisions allow for the introduction of global tariffs of up to 15%. for 150 days (the period can only be extended by Congress) in response to a “serious and large balance of payments deficit.”

“It is worth noting that the trade deficit is not a balance of payments deficit, which means that the president is once again acting illegally,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement.

Most experts are of a similar opinion that the negative balance of payments in the sense of the 1970s – when the dollar was no longer convertible into gold – does not apply to current conditions. However, it is unclear whether courts will be willing to question the federal authorities' motivation and findings. This is the first-ever use of these provisions.

Oregon authorities and many of the same state authorities were behind the lawsuit that ultimately led to the U.S. Supreme Court invalidating the IEEPA tariffs. The New York Court of International Trade then accepted their arguments. On Wednesday, the same court also ruled that the authorities must refund taxes collected under IEEPA to importers.

According to Trump and members of his cabinet, the new tariffs are only a temporary bridge until new tariffs are introduced based on more proven powers. However, these require the initiation of formal proceedings, which usually take several months. Ultimately, the tariff level is expected to return to what it was before the Supreme Court invalidated most of Trump's tariffs.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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