Cranes load containers onto ships at the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, US, on March 6, 2025. Photo:VCG

A coalition of 25 Democratic-led US states has sued the US administration on Monday, alleging that the US president exceeded his legal authority by imposing sweeping tariffs on 60 trading partners and asking the US Court of International Trade to block the measures and declare them unlawful. 

The lawsuit exposes both the fragile legal basis of the US administration's tariff policy and the country's deepening partisan divide, Chinese analysts said, warning that, as with previous rounds, the latest tariffs will ultimately leave US businesses and consumers footing the bill.

The states' lawsuit follows challenges filed by a group of small US businesses, which sued to block the tariffs on the day they took effect in July, Reuters reported.

The complaint challenges tariffs of 10 percent or 12.5 percent on most goods imported from the affected economies, which together account for 99.4 percent of US imports, according to the states.

The states alleged that US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer rushed investigations into 60 economies, failed to conduct the country-specific consultations required under US trade law and did not adequately explain why nearly uniform tariff rates were appropriate for economies with widely different policies, CNBC reported.

"There is no rational fit between the purported problem of forced labor in international supply chains and the blanket global tariffs the United States Trade Representative (USTR) imposed," the states' complaint said.

The states are asking the court to block the tariffs, declare them unlawful and order the administration to refund duties collected under the measures, according to the CNBC report.

"The lawsuit was hardly surprising, as each of the Trump administration's recent attempts to impose sweeping tariffs has encountered sustained opposition at home, He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

The fact that the latest challenge was brought mainly by Democratic-led states also underscores the deepening partisan divide in the US, He said.

The 25 states' lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to the US tariff agenda, following a series of setbacks in court. In February, the US Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give the president the authority to impose his earlier sweeping tariffs.

"Imposing across-the-board tariffs on an entire country or economy under the pretext of so-called 'forced labor' lacks sufficient legal and factual grounds," He said. "If the measures were genuinely intended to address forced labor, they could target specific products or companies for which clear evidence exists, rather than broadly covering most goods from an entire economy."

Such a sweeping application of Section 301 amounts to an expansion and abuse of the provision, He added.

On July 23, the USTR announced sweeping tariffs on goods from 60 economies, including a 12.5 percent levy on Chinese imports, following Section 301 investigations into their alleged failure to ban imports produced with "forced labor." The measures took effect the following day, replacing a previous10 percent global tariff as it expired.

The US determination to preserve a broad tariff regime also points to the failure of its previous measures, which neither reduced the US trade deficit nor generated more manufacturing jobs, He said.

The US has nevertheless continued to pursue the policy, which shows that its primary objective is not the broader interests of the US economy, but the consolidation of the administration's domestic political base through an increasingly protectionist agenda, He added.

Opposition to the tariffs has also extended beyond the courtroom, with businesses and trade groups in the US and other affected economies warning of higher costs and supply-chain disruptions.

Industry associations from economies targeted by the investigation also voiced opposition, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Lima Chamber of Commerce in Peru.

Brazil has also taken the dispute to the multilateral level. The World Trade Organization said on July 30 that Brazil had requested dispute consultations with the US over tariffs imposed on Brazilian goods, according to CCTV News.

As the US continues to raise trade barriers, other economies will accelerate the diversification of their markets and supply chains, He said. "In the long run, the US will bear the cost, as tariffs make imported intermediate goods and components more expensive for American companies, with the burden ultimately passed on to manufacturers and consumers."

China's Ministry of Commerce said on July 27 that the US has yet to ratify the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, but has long manipulated the issue of so-called "forced labor." Launching Section 301 investigations and imposing unilateral tariffs under that pretext constituted a typical act of unilateralism and protectionism, which China firmly opposes, a ministry spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said China would continue to closely monitor and comprehensively assess subsequent US actions, and reserve the right to take all necessary measures, urging the US to correct its erroneous approach and completely remove the unilateral tariffs.