U.S. food importer sues to block Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods
The lawsuit argues the president overstepped his authority by using a rarely invoked 1930s law to impose 50 per cent duties.
NEW YORK — A U.S. food importer has filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods, arguing the use of a 1930s statute is unlawful.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by the non-profit Liberty Justice Center on behalf of Gellert Global Group in the United States Court of International Trade in New York.
It argues Trump's use of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 exceeds his power as president.
READ MORE: Most U.S. adults disapprove of Trump's trade policies, poll finds
READ MORE: U.S. tariffs push Canadian wool industry to seek new global markets
"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," Liberty Justice Center CEO Sara Albrecht said in a news release.
Trump used Section 338 to impose 50 per cent tariffs on a wide range of Canadian imports in August after trade talks broke down.
The same statute was used the following month to ban the import of other Canadian goods, including motorcycles and some alcohol and dairy products.
The White House has said Section 338 empowers the president to impose tariffs when a country puts U.S. exporters at a disadvantage relative to exporters in other countries, even though the law has never been used for that purpose.
U.S. officials have said the latest duties are a response to provincial bans on U.S. liquor, Canada's supply managed dairy system and quotas on certain U.S. vehicles.
Tuesday's lawsuit said the Canadian policies don't justify the sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
It notes two of the measures, auto quotas and liquor bans, were actually a response to Trump's own tariff measures.
The lawsuit also said Canada's dairy supply management involves policies agreed to under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA, which was negotiated during the first Trump administration.
The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Thomas Gellert, co-chief executive officer of Gellert Global Group, said the company has "spent generations building trusted relationships with suppliers, customers and partners across the food industry."
"These tariffs disrupt those relationships overnight and create costs and uncertainty that ripple through the entire supply chain," Gellert said in the news release.
The plaintiff, Gellert Global Group, is a New Jersey-based food importer with US$1.7-billion in annual revenue that imports Canadian cheeses subjected to the tariff.
The case raises concerns beyond Canada, the news release said. If the duties remain unchecked, any president could use Section 338 to impose tariffs and trade restrictions without meaningful congressional control.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful and order a refund.
Fourth legal challenge
The lawsuit marks the fourth time a wide-ranging tariff policy from the Trump administration has been challenged in court.
The U.S. Supreme Court in February ruled against most of the tariffs Trump imposed in 2025, but the administration has continued to issue wide-ranging tariffs that have been subject to legal challenges by U.S. states and businesses.
The U.S. trade court has previously ruled against a temporary 10-per-cent global tariff imposed by the Trump administration after its Supreme Court loss.
The Liberty Justice Center was previously involved in the legal challenge against Trump's use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977 for tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
In February, America's top court concluded it was not legal for Trump to use that statute because the U.S. Constitution very clearly gives Congress power over taxes and tariffs.
The new lawsuit argues that Section 338 has been overwritten by later tariff laws, including the Trade Act that Trump used to impose other tariffs earlier in 2026.
Yadude Books reported in October that Canada's trade surplus ballooned to $4.2 billion as exporters raced to ship goods to the United States ahead of the new tariffs that took effect Aug. 22.
With files from The Canadian Press, CBC News and The Globe and Mail