A New Jersey food importer files a lawsuit challenging Trump's 50%
tariffs on Canadian goods
[October 21, 2026] By
PAUL WISEMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A New Jersey food importer filed a lawsuit Tuesday
challenging President Donald Trump's power to invoke a Depression-era
law to levy a 50% tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.
The Gellert Global Group, a third-generation family business that
imports Canadian cheese, took its case to the U.S. Court of
International Trade, a specialized court in New York.
In August, Trump reached back to Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930
to impose the tariffs on Canada, prompting dollar-for-dollar retaliation
from Ottawa and straining already-tense relations between the neighbors
and longtime allies. The president last month escalated the conflict by
announcing an outright ban on nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian
products, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.
The president’s Section 338 tariff authority had never been used in a
trade dispute, let alone tested in court.
"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,” said Sara Albrecht, chair of the Liberty
Justice Center, a libertarian advocacy group that is representing the
Gellert firm and which successfully challenged previous Trump tariffs
before the Supreme Court earlier this year.
The White House said the administration would vigorously defend Trump’s
tariffs on Canadian imports and considers Section 338 appropriate to
counter what the administration considers Canadian discrimination
against American dairy, alcohol and auto exports.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has sought to build
a wall of protective tariffs — import taxes — around the U.S. economy.
The centerpiece of the policy originally was his use of a 1977 law to
declare America's longstanding trade deficits a national emergency,
justifying double-digit tariffs on almost every country. But the Supreme
Court struck down those tariffs in February, and the Trump
administration was forced to refund billions of dollars to the importers
that paid them.
[to top of second column] |
The flags of Canada and the United States fly in Ottawa, Sept. 12,
2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
 Trump has since looked for other
legal authority to tax imports. In July, for example, he hit dozens
of U.S. trading partners with tariffs of 10% to 12.5%, charging that
they had not done enough to crack down on imports produced by forced
labor. Those tariffs are also being challenged in court.
Then he invoked Section 338 to sanction Canada for allegedly
discriminating against U.S. dairy, auto and alcoholic beverages.
As Section 338 sat on the books unused for decades, Congress passed
new trade laws. Some of them ceded to the president tariff power,
which the Constitution originally granted to Congress. But the new
laws also limited the president’s authority to certain circumstances
— including dealing with national security threats and foreign
currency crises — and required the government to carry out
investigations and meet other procedural requirements beforehand.
The Liberty Justice Center argues that the newer trade legislation
superseded the president's Section 338 tariff authority and rendered
it obsolete.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
