US states sue Trump administration over new tariffs impacting 60 trading partners

These tariffs, which came into effect in July, target countries including the UK, China, and the European Union, with Washington citing their alleged failure to adequately address forced labor. The coalition of Democratic states, in a legal document, described the decision as “arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.” White House spokesman Kush Desai stated that the US is using its “lawful authority” to tackle practices that burden American businesses, emphasizing that any foreign country’s failure to deal with goods produced with forced labor is “unreasonable.”

The tariffs were imposed under Section 301 of the 1974 US Trade Act and cover 99.4% of US imports. The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration is using forced labor as a “pretext to continue its illegal tariff scheme” and that the tariffs are so broad they contradict the USTR’s stated aims. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the tariffs “nothing more than a tax on hardworking families,” while Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield stated that “we’re all paying the price for these unlawful tariffs, not foreign governments.”

Major trading partners like Brazil and Japan have called the measures “unjustified,” and China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described them as an “excuse for political manipulation.” This action follows a serie