New Jersey importer sues Trump over 50% tariffs on Canadian goods under 1930 law

A New Jersey food importer has filed suit challenging President Donald Trump’s authority to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. ABC News reported that the case contests Trump’s use of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a Depression-era law.

Headlines from KDVR and Quartz also describe a food importer’s lawsuit over the tariffs; The Globe and Mail identifies the challenge as coming from a U.S. non-profit, while the BBC calls it the latest legal challenge to Trump. The Liberty Justice Center argues that later trade legislation superseded the president’s Section 338 authority, rendering that power obsolete.

That is the organization’s position in the dispute, not a court ruling. The lawsuit therefore puts the legal basis for the tariffs before a court, although ABC News does not identify the court or provide a hearing schedule. ABC News says Trump invoked Section 338 in August to impose the duties on Canada.

The outlet describes this as the law’s first use in a trade dispute and says its tariff authority had never been tested in court. It also reports that Trump cited alleged discrimination against U.S. dairy, automobile and alcoholic-beverage products as the basis for invoking the law.

The tariffs prompted dollar-for-dollar retaliation from Ottawa, ABC News reported, and strained relations between the two countries, which the outlet described as neighbors and longtime allies. The account does not specify the measures Ottawa used.

The reported tariff dispute thus includes both the U.S. duties and Canada’s stated retaliatory action, while the suit challenges the authority behind Trump’s tariffs. ABC News further reports that Trump escalated the dispute the previous month by announcing a ban on nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian products.

The listed categories included alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles. The outlet does not say whether that ban is part of the lawsuit, so the suit’s stated focus remains the Section 338 tariff authority. The key legal question described in the report is whether later trade legislation displaced the authority Trump invoked.

The Liberty Justice Center advances that argument, while the lawsuit challenges the president’s use of Section 338; the source does not report a judicial decision on the issue. The law’s novel use in a trade dispute and the absence of a prior court test give the case its stated legal significance.