President Trump imposed tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from more than 80 countries over what the administration calls their failure to prohibit forced labor, reaching trade partners that account for 99.4% of US trade. This time, the duties come under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 rather than the emergency powers the Supreme Court rejected in February.
Trump said on Friday that the U.S. will “immediately” start a 301 investigation into the EU to retaliate against the hefty fines it has recently imposed on U.S. Big Tech, which include €890M against Google for self-preferencing in search and Play Store anti-steering, €500M against Apple for App Store anti-steering, and €200M against Meta for its pay-or-consent data model.
Are these new tariffs legal? The last two attempts certainly weren't.
We'll soon find out. Two small businesses sued the Trump Administration in the Court of International Trade hours after the tariffs took effect, arguing the forced-labor rationale is a pretext for rebuilding the same global tariff regime the court threw out. Liberty Justice Center, which won the IEEPA challenge, is representing them. A second lawsuit was filed the same day on behalf of seven businesses, including Learning Resources and hand2mind, both plaintiffs in the IEEPA case that reached the Supreme Court.
Trade lawyers are split. Georgetown's Peter Harrell and UCLA's Kimberly Clausing both told CNBC the tariffs are vulnerable, with Clausing calling them clearly unlawful, while former USTR general counsel Greta Peisch said the administration followed the required procedures and that the statute's flexibility makes it a difficult standard to argue against.
Meanwhile, customs is still fielding refund demands from thousands of businesses over the roughly $166B collected under the IEEPA tariffs the Supreme Court invalidated, with as much as $65B still expected to go back out.
Honestly, it's enough of this shit already. Quit playing with the livelihood of American small businesses and the wallets of consumers. Want tariffs? Go through the proper legal channels. Americans need some stability right now. Business owners shouldn't have to wake up every morning not knowing whether the container of goods headed their way is about to cost more than it did when they placed the order.
