New Jersey food importer sues Trump over 50 percent Canadian tariffs

A US food importer has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, challenging his authority to impose 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods without approval from Congress.

Gellert Global Group, based in New Jersey and a major importer of Canadian cheese, lodged the suit on Tuesday with the US Court of International Trade in New York.

The company states that the tariffs are increasing its costs and straining its ties with suppliers in both the United States and Canada. According to the complaint, Gellert paid more than $520,000 in duties between September 16 and October 11.

Company co-chief executive Thomas Gellert said in a statement that the firm had spent generations building relationships with suppliers, customers and partners in the food sector, and that the tariffs were undermining those ties while adding unpredictable costs throughout the supply chain.

The legal challenge targets Trump's use of a Depression-era statute to justify tariffs on a broad array of Canadian products, including dairy, furniture, clothing and wine.

Trump introduced the 50 percent tariffs earlier in the summer, claiming Canada was treating American-made vehicles, alcohol and dairy unfairly. In September, he widened the tariffs to cover additional goods after Canada imposed retaliatory measures.

According to the lawsuit, the law Trump relied on does not apply to the Canadian practices cited by his administration, since two of them emerged only after Trump's own tariffs were introduced, while the third concerns Canadian dairy rules already covered under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The complaint also questions the logic of taxing Canadian cheese imports over disputes that primarily involve alcohol and automobiles.