President Trump’s global tariffs face another courtroom test Wednesday as judges weigh whether a 1970s trade law can back duties on goods from dozens of nations.
A three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade will hear arguments over the administration’s use of Section 301, a 1970s trade statute, to place tariffs on nearly everything the United States imports, CNN reported.
The case goes to the heart of presidential trade power. Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian public-interest law firm, filed the complaint and previously won a landmark Supreme Court fight that struck down an earlier round of duties.
Since late July, goods from 80 countries, including China, India, and Japan, have faced tariff rates of 10% to 12.5%. Those levies rolled out as a separate near-blanket 10% duty lapsed.
The administration imposed the current tariffs after determining that those countries had failed to address forced labor in goods shipped to the United States.
The US Trade Representative recommended the tariffs as a remedy. Higher rates apply to countries deemed the “worst offenders.”
The complaint argues the administration is trying to preserve a predetermined global tariff policy and that doing so is an improper use of Section 301. The court will test that claim against the statute’s actual scope.
Administration officials, on a briefing call with reporters shortly before the new duties took effect, put the policy in plain terms. “The real message here that everyone needs to take away is the president is going to always use the tools at his disposal to achieve his trade policy objectives,” they said.
Officials also said the timing was meant to “avoid complexity” that would have come from stacking the new levies on top of the then-10% duties.
Earlier in the year, Trump imposed a separate 10% near-blanket duty under a different legal authority. The Supreme Court later ruled he had overstepped that authority.
That ruling immediately invalidated those tariffs and triggered $168 billion in refunds for importers. Liberty Justice Center won that case.
The new Section 301 fight is the next round. A ruling could still take weeks, if not months. Either side could appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That court could also decide whether to pause enforcement while the case proceeds. The dispute could eventually reach the Supreme Court again over several more months.
Trump has also tapped a Great Depression-era trade law to impose 50% duties on $20 billion worth of goods from Canada and issued widespread import bans from there.
Several pending Section 301 investigations are widely expected to lead to higher border taxes. The Wednesday arguments sit inside that broader push to reset trade terms with countries that, in the administration’s view, have not fixed forced-labor practices or other unfair conditions.
The Court of International Trade will now decide whether Section 301 can carry the global tariff structure now in place. Importers, exporters, and trading partners will watch the clock. So will workers and firms that compete with goods made under weaker labor standards abroad.
Trade policy that protects American workers and presses foreign governments on forced labor will keep drawing lawsuits. The president has made clear he intends to keep using the tools the law gives him.
