Trump Hit With Lawsuit Hours After Latest Tariffs Take Effect
25% duties on Brazil and threatened 50% levies on Canada draw fresh legal fire — and experts doubt they survive
By Barnaby "Bottom-Line" Coyne
The ink was barely dry on the new tariff schedule before the lawyers showed up.
Hours after President Donald Trump's latest round of duties took effect this week — a 25% tariff on Brazilian imports and a threatened 50% tariff on goods from Canada — the president was sued, according to CNBC. The suit challenges the legal footing of the tariffs, and CNBC reports that trade experts question whether the measures will hold up in court.
That's the pattern with this administration's trade policy: announce first, defend the paperwork later. For importers, that uncertainty is its own tax. A company sourcing coffee, steel or auto parts from Brazil can't plan a purchase order around a duty that might be struck down next month — or might not.
Who pays a tariff, in the end? Not foreign governments, whatever the applause line says. Import duties are collected from the U.S. companies bringing goods across the border, and those companies pass the cost along the chain — to retailers, then to the person buying the coffee or the car. A 25% duty doesn't stay in Brasília. It shows up on a receipt in Cleveland.
CNBC's reporting did not detail the plaintiffs or the specific legal theory behind the suit, and we don't have that on the record yet — worth flagging plainly rather than guessing. What is clear is that this is not the first time Trump's use of tariff authority has drawn a court challenge, and it likely won't be the last.
For now, importers are stuck making decisions in the dark: eat the cost, raise prices, or hold off ordering and hope the courts move fast. None of those are good options for a small business running on thin margins.
Somebody's paying for this. Let's find out who.
— Compiled from reporting by CNBC.
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