Business
Attorney General Rob Bonta Continues Opposition to President Trump’s Tariff Regime
“President Trump is so intent on raising the cost of living for Americans that he is willing to break law after law to continue his tariff regime,” said Bonta.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as part of a coalition of 25 states, filed an amicus brief in the Court of International Trade in Learning Resources v. Trump, a case challenging President Trump’s latest “unlawful” attempt to tax the states and American consumers through illegal tariffs, according to a media release issued by the California Department of Justice.
In the brief, Bonta argues the latest round of tariffs levied under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 are pretextual and are not targeted to address the purported harms of forced labor, as that statute requires, but instead are designed to re-create the tariffs already declared illegal by various courts.
Last month, Bonta and the coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to impose these tariffs on over 80 countries that together account for 99.4% of all U.S. imports — costs that will be passed along to Americans already struggling with affordability.
“President Trump is so intent on raising the cost of living for Americans that he is willing to break law after law to continue his tariff regime,” said Bonta.
“Imposing these tariffs under Section 301 has nothing to do with forced labor and everything to do with continuing the President’s failed economic policy and reimposing the global tariffs that the Supreme Court invalidated,” he continued.
“We urge the Court of International Trade to declare the president’s tariffs under Section 301 illegal. Tariffs are taxes, and the American people cannot and should not shoulder the extra costs that come from the president’s illegal tariffs.”
