In Friday’s lawsuit, two small and medium-sized companies said the latest tariffs on 60 countries need to be legally justified.
Published July 24, 2026
Two U.S. small businesses are challenging President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on products from 60 trading partners, arguing that the new policy, like most of Trump’s previous tariffs, exceeds the president’s authority to tax imports.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. Trade Court in New York, argues that more detailed country-by-country findings on “forced labor” are needed for new tariffs to be legally justified.
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The two small businesses, backed by a nonprofit legal group that has successfully sued over past tariffs, argued that the president is trying to reimpose tariffs that have already been ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Trump administration on Friday imposed new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners, including the European Union, for not doing enough to prevent exports of products made with forced labor. The new tariffs came into effect at the same time as a temporary 10 percent tariff expires worldwide.
President Trump has made tariffs a central pillar of his foreign policy, using them as leverage to negotiate trade deals around the world. However, on February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give presidents the power to unilaterally impose tariffs on trading partners, blocking most of President Trump’s most far-reaching tariffs.
President Trump responded to the ruling by criticizing the court and imposing new temporary 10% global tariffs under different legal authority. These tariffs, like the IEEPA tariffs, were imposed under a section of the law that no previous president had used to impose tariffs, and were also ruled illegal by the U.S. Trade Court. The Trump administration is appealing the ruling.
Friday’s tariffs were imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is intended to combat unfair or discriminatory economic practices by other countries.
Unlike IEEPA and the Temporary Global Customs Authority, Section 301 has been used regularly by successive presidents.
But the states and small businesses said in their lawsuit that Section 301 tariffs have historically been intended to address specific countries and industries, and that President Trump’s bombastic approach is historically unprecedented.
