California Sues US Government over Trump Tariffs

The governor of California and the prosecutor announced on Wednesday that the state is suing the federal government because of Donald Trump's intermittent tariffs, claiming that the US president does not have the right to impose them.

The lawsuit states that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump used to impose tariffs of up to 145 percent, does not give him the authority to impose tariffs on goods incoming the United States.

"We demand that the court restrain the president and respect the constitution, as the president acts again as if he is above the law, and he is not," Attorney General Rob Ponta told reporters.

Ponta added that the authority to impose tariffs lies with Congress, and that the lawsuit sought to ensure that its actions are reversed, saying: “It is simply that Trump does not have the authority to impose these tariffs, it must be stopped.”

The case is the latest in more than a dozen lawsuits filed by California against the Trump administration, and the move represents the strongest reaction to date to the imposition of tariffs that have led to the collapse of global stock markets, leaving companies across the United States in uncertainty.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said: “It's the worst reverse target in the history of this country, it's one of the most self-destructive things we've seen in modern American history.”

With 40 million people and a large outward-oriented economy accounting for 14 percent of U.S. GDP, California appears to bear the brunt of the economic damage that forecasters expect from recent fluctuations.

California, which would have become the world's fifth largest economy if it were an independent nation, could lose billions of dollars in revenue if Trump's tariff policies cut international trade, Newsom's office says.

Trump has long seen tariffs as a tool to achieve what he describes as the urgent need to rebalance American trade relations, and during his election campaign he pledged to impose additional tariffs on imports.

The initial punitive tariffs against Mexico and Canada were reinforced by his self-proclaimed “Liberation Day,” which saw the imposition of exorbitant tariffs on dozens of countries, including allies and partners, and later suspended, but their chaotic announcement caused sharp fluctuations in global stock markets, leading to the loss of trillions of dollars of their value.