A coalition of 22 Democratic state attorneys general filed a comment letter Monday opposing the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs of up to 12.5 percent on 59 countries and the EU, arguing they are unlawful and amount to a pretext to reimpose broad tariffs previously struck down by the courts.
The coalition, co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, filed its objections in response to a proposal by the US Trade Representative to impose tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on countries the administration says have failed to enforce prohibitions on goods made with forced labor. The targeted 60 economies account for more than 99 percent of all US imports.
“After his first two attempts to impose tariffs were declared illegal by the courts, including the US Supreme Court, the President is back at it again,” Bonta said. “Tariffs are taxes, and the American people cannot shoulder extra costs—no matter how much President Trump wants them to.”
In the letter, the attorneys general argued that the proposed tariffs bear little connection to the forced labor concerns they are supposed to address and are instead an attempt to revive the sweeping tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February. They pointed to the speed of the process, completed in roughly two and a half months rather than the year or more that Section 301 investigations typically require, along with the sheer scope of the targeting 60 economies at once, as evidence that the forced labor rationale is a pretext rather than a genuine basis for the tariffs.
US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer said that the failure of trading partners to address goods made with forced labor was “unacceptable” and that the US would “no longer tolerate this disparity.”