Overview
- A coalition of 25 states filed a complaint on Monday in the U.S. Court of International Trade seeking to suspend and vacate the administration’s new 10–12.5% tariffs on imports from about 59–60 countries.
- The tariffs were adopted under Section 301 of the Trade Act and apply to economies that together account for roughly 99% of U.S. imports, with separate 10% and 12.5% brackets set by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
- The states say the administration skipped the detailed, country-by-country investigations and reasoned links between specific foreign practices and U.S. trade harms that Section 301 requires, and they argue the duties are a thinly veiled replacement for earlier tariffs the Supreme Court struck down.
- The duties remain in force and continue to be collected unless a judge issues an injunction, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already processed roughly $100 billion in refunds tied to the earlier IEEPA-based tariffs.
- If courts block the measures the government could be forced to repay duties and face limits on using Section 301 for sweeping, across-the-board tariffs, a dispute that will shape how the executive branch uses trade law and affect costs for U.S. consumers and businesses.