A coalition of 12 US states has sued President Donald Trump's administration over "illegal tariffs" in the US Court of International Trade in New York.
The lawsuit was filed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont, seeking an injunction to block the Trump administration's implementation of the tariffs.
The latest legal action comes a week after California, the most populous US state, took the first similar step against the Trump administration.
The lawsuit alleges that this policy has left the nation's trade policy at the mercy of Trump's "on a whim, not on the proper exercise of lawful authority", asking the court to declare the tariffs illegal and block government agencies and officials from enforcing them.
She noted that the U.S. president can invoke the emergency law only in the case of "unusual and extraordinary threats" from abroad.
"By arrogating to himself the power to impose huge and ever-changing tariffs on any goods entering the United States, for whatever reason he sees fit to declare an emergency, the President has disrupted the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy." the lawsuit states.
"Congress did not grant the President the authority to impose these tariffs, and therefore the Administration has violated the law by imposing them through executive orders, social media posts, and agency regulations," the New York Attorney General's office said in a statement Letitia James.
"His tariffs are illegal and, if not stopped, will lead to further inflation, unemployment and economic damage," James said.
"President Trump's reckless tariffs have skyrocketed consumer costs and unleashed economic chaos across the country," the governor of New York said in a statement Kathy Hochul.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in response that the administration "remains committed to addressing this national emergency that is decimating American industry and leaving our workers in the lurch, using every tool available, from tariffs to negotiations".
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order at the White House invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and impose so-called "reciprocal duties" on all U.S. trading partners.
This move provoked strong opposition from the international community and within the United States and led to considerable turmoil in the financial markets.
CMG/CGTN/Xinhua/gnews.cz
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