California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday his state will file a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs that have set off a global trade war.
The suit will argue Mr. Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China or a 10% tariff on all imports is unlawful. The act enables a president to freeze and block transactions in response to foreign threats.
The lawsuit, which will be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, will argue that enacting such tariffs requires approval from Congress, Newsom’s office said in a news release.
“No other state will be more impacted by the impacts of this,” Newsom said at a Wednesday press conference alongside California Attorney General Rob Bonta in the Central Valley.
“Already, vendors have warned us that they’re going to pass the costs of Trump’s tariffs onto the state of California,” Bonta said.
Bonta and Newsom noted that the lawsuit will be the 14th in less than 14 weeks that California has filed against the Trump administration.
“We’re asking the court to rein in the president,” Bonta said.
Mr. Trump has offered many justifications for increasing tariffs, including that they are designed to spur U.S. manufacturing and stop the flow of illicit fentanyl into the country. California’s move follows rapidly changing tariff plans by the Trump administration. The government briefly imposed steep “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries last week, before pausing most of those tariffs for 90 days — but Mr. Trump left in place a 10% tariff on most imported goods, and hiked levies on imports from China to a total of 145%.
Newsom said the tariffs have, in effect, resulted in inflated costs and billions of dollars in damage in California, which has the largest economy among the states and is a massive exporter of goods.
“No state is poised to lose more than the state of California,” Newsom said.
The state will ask the court to immediately block the tariffs.
The announcement comes days after Newsom asked countries to exempt California exports from retaliatory tariffs. No deals have yet been announced.
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