A Duncan Toy Company employee sorts toys at the company's warehouse in Columbus, Indiana, on April 16, 2025. Photo: VCG

A dozen US states sued the Trump administration in the US Court of International Trade in New York on Wednesday to stop its tariff policy, saying they are unlawful and had damaged the American economy, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday.

A Chinese expert said growing US domestic opposition against Washington's sweeping tariffs underscores that unilateralism and protectionism finds no support and is unsustainable.

The lawsuit argued the policy put in place by the US President has been subject to his "whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority," AP reported. The lawsuit maintained that only Congress has the power to impose tariffs and that the president can only invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when an emergency presents an "unusual and extraordinary threat" from abroad.

It challenged Trump's claim that he could arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them, according to the report.

The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.

The Trump administration faces a similar lawsuit filed by the State of California, members of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana, a paper goods business in Florida, and a company that produces educational toys in Washington DC, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday.

"More and more lawsuits in the US against the Trump administration's tariffs come as no surprise, as those tariffs have no legal basis, since only the US Congress has the power to impose tariffs while these tariffs also violate WTO rules," He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that the sweeping tariffs are unsustainable.

A growing number of US states filing lawsuits against the Trump administration's tariffs underscores the chaos and damage of those tariffs bring to American consumers, businesses and its economy, Huo Jianguo, a vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Prices are rising and economic activity has begun to slow across parts of the nation as businesses and households try to adapt to the Trump administration's erratic rollout of sweeping tariffs aimed at reshaping global trade, Reuters reported, citing a report from the Federal Reserve.

"Uncertainty around international trade policy was pervasive across reports," the US central bank said in the Beige Book. "The outlook in several Districts worsened considerably as economic uncertainty, particularly surrounding tariffs, rose," it said.

The US trade war with China will hit US healthcare, Aljazeera reported on Wednesday. In a shareholder meeting, Michel Demare, chairman of the board for AstraZeneca, said, "We still strongly believe that medicines should be exempted from any kind of tariffs because, at the end, it is just harming patients' health systems and restricting health equity," according to the report.

Amid ongoing market volatility, the Trump administration has signaled a potential U-turn on tariffs imposed on China, saying the high tariffs on Chinese goods will "come down substantially, but it won't be zero," CNN reported on Tuesday.

Additionally, the US is planning to exempt carmakers from some of his most onerous tariffs, in another climbdown following intense lobbying by industry executives over recent weeks, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The move would exempt car parts from the tariffs that the US is imposing on imports from China to counter fentanyl production, as well from those levied on steel and aluminum, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, it said.

However, the Trump administration keeps sending mixed signals. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that the Trump administration will not unilaterally reduce tariffs imposed on China, CNBC reported.

Echoing Leavitt's comment, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that there were no plans for the Trump administration to move first in lowering tariffs to de-escalate a bitter US-China trade war, Reuters reported.

"Amid the mixed signals sent out by the Trump administration, we're soberly aware that the US' goal of containing and suppressing China has and will not change," Huo said, noting that China should continue to enrich its countermeasure reserves.

"The US must show sincerity and make good gestures if it truly wants to return to the negotiating table," he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stressed that tariff and trade wars have no winners, protectionism leads nowhere, and to decouple is to self-alienate.

"This tariff war is launched by the US. We have made it very clear that China does not look for a war, but neither are we afraid of it. We will fight, if fight we must. Our doors are open, if the US wants to talk. If a negotiated solution is truly what the US wants, it should stop threatening and blackmailing China and seek dialogue based on equality, respect and mutual benefit. To keep asking for a deal while exerting extreme pressure is not the right way to deal with China and simply will not work," Guo said.