A US food importer has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, arguing the White House exceeded its legal authority and bypassed Congress in imposing the levies.
Gellert Global Group, a New Jersey-based, third-generation family business that imports Canadian cheese, filed the suit on Tuesday in the US Court of International Trade in New York. The Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit legal organisation, filed the case on the company's behalf.
The lawsuit challenges Trump's use of Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, a provision that had never been invoked before this year. The administration used it to impose 50 percent tariffs on an estimated $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, including dairy products, wine, furniture, clothing and hockey sticks.
Trump first imposed the tariffs over the summer, accusing Canada of discriminating against American-made cars, alcohol and dairy products. He expanded the measures in September, adding more products in response to Canadian retaliatory tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney subsequently matched the US tariffs "dollar for dollar."
Between 16 September and 11 October, Gellert paid more than $520,000 in duties, according to the complaint. The company is also facing retaliatory tariffs from Canada on American-made cheese it sells north of the border.
Co-chief executive Thomas Gellert said the tariffs were damaging relationships built over decades. "These tariffs disrupt those relationships overnight and create costs and uncertainty that ripple through the entire supply chain," he said.
The lawsuit argues that Section 338 has been superseded by Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which requires investigations, public comment periods and other procedural safeguards that the Trump administration bypassed. It contends the executive branch cannot circumvent those protections by invoking a 1930 statute that no previous president had ever used to impose a tariff.
"The administration cannot skip those protections by reaching for a 1930 statute that no president had ever used to impose a tariff," said Jeffrey Schwab, the Liberty Justice Center's senior counsel and director of litigation.
The suit also argues that even if Section 338 still applies, the White House has not established the legal basis for the tariffs. It states that two of the Canadian policies cited by the administration as discriminatory "arose in response to the president's own tariffs," while a third involves Canadian dairy policy governed by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The lawsuit further contends that Section 338 requires a 30-day waiting period before tariffs can be collected on newly listed products. The administration waited only seven days before beginning to collect duties on cheese added to the list in September.
Sara Albrecht, chief executive of the Liberty Justice Center, said the case was not directed at Trump personally but at the limits of presidential power. "No president should have the power to pull a dormant statute off the shelf and use it to impose sweeping tariffs or import bans without the limits Congress required," she said.
"The case is not an objection to tariffs as such. It asks who has the power to impose them and whether the executive branch followed the law Congress wrote," the Liberty Justice Center said in a statement.
Albrecht added that the group had brought all its tariff challenges for the same reason: "The Constitution gives tariff power to Congress. The executive branch cannot keep moving the same policy from one statute to another and pretend the limits disappear."
The Liberty Justice Center has also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to block collection of the tariffs while the case proceeds.
This marks the fourth major legal challenge to Trump's tariffs brought by the group. It previously won a case against tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which were struck down in February. A trade court also later ruled against a separate temporary 10 percent global tariff. A further challenge related to tariffs imposed over alleged forced labour in international trade remains pending.
Gellert is asking the court to declare the tariffs unlawful, halt their collection and order refunds with interest for affected importers. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
