Two major business groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Technology Association, filed a legal brief Tuesday asking a federal appeals court to strike down President Donald Trump’s use of a 1977 emergency powers law to impose tariffs on countries around the world.
Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act “to impose virtually unbounded tariffs is not only unprecedented, but is causing irreparable harm to [our] members and to small businesses in particular, increasing their costs, undermining their ability to plan for the future, and in some cases threatening their very existence,” the business groups wrote in the amicus brief, also known as a “friend of the court” brief, in a combined set of lawsuits brought by a group of small businesses and a dozen Democratic states.
So far, major business organizations have sat on the sideline in the legal fight against the tariffs, letting small businesses and Democratic attorneys general take the lead in challenging Trump’s use of IEEPA. By filing an amicus brief in the case this week, they are raising their profile on the tariff issue and risking an angry response from Trump.
Trump has used IEEPA to impose a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports entering the U.S. as well as to threaten nearly 60 trading partners with tariffs up to 50 percent unless they agree to open their markets to more U.S.goods. So far, those negotiations have led to few deals; Trump began sending out letters to countries this week unilaterally informing them of their new U.S. tariff rate, effective Aug. 1.
