US Food Importer Sues President Trump Over 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods

Gellert Global Group, a New Jersey-based importer of Canadian cheese, filed suit against President Donald Trump in the US Court of International Trade in New York on Tuesday, according to the complaint. The company argues that the president lacks the legal authority to impose sweeping tariffs without congressional approval.

According to the lawsuit, the 50% tariff policy Trump imposed on a wide range of Canadian goods — from dairy products and furniture to clothing and wine — has driven up Gellert's costs and strained relationships with suppliers on both sides of the border. Between September 16 and October 11, the company paid more than $520,000 in tariffs.

"Gellert Global Group has spent generations building trusted relationships with suppliers, customers and partners across the food industry," co-CEO Thomas Gellert said in a press release. "These tariffs broke those relationships overnight and created costs and uncertainty that ripple throughout the supply chain."

The lawsuit challenges Trump's invocation of a Depression-era law to impose tariffs on a wide array of Canadian products. The president first imposed the 50% rate in the summer, accusing Canada of discriminating against US-made cars, alcoholic beverages and dairy products, then expanded the list in September in response to Canada's retaliatory tariff measures.

The complaint argues that the law the administration cites does not apply to the Canadian policies deemed discriminatory, because two of them "arose in response to the president's own tariffs, while the third concerns Canada's dairy regulations, which are governed by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)." The lawsuit also questions why Canadian cheese is being taxed when the dispute concerns alcoholic beverages and automobiles.

"No president should be able to pull a dormant law off the shelf and use it to impose sweeping tariffs or import bans without the limits Congress required," said Sara Albrecht, president and CEO of the Liberty Justice Center, the nonprofit legal organization representing Gellert.

According to Reuters, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the heart of the case is Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 50% on imports from countries found to discriminate against US businesses. The provision had never been used until Trump invoked it this year.

The lawsuit argues that newer laws enacted by Congress since then, such as Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, require investigations, public comment and other safeguards that the Trump administration skipped, and that those rules take precedence over Section 338.

"The administration cannot sidestep those safeguards by reaching back to a 1930 law that no president has ever used to impose tariffs," said Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel and litigation director at the Liberty Justice Center.

The lawsuit further argues that even if Trump were permitted to use the old law, he failed to meet its requirements, including waiting 30 days before collecting tariffs on newly added items. According to the complaint, the administration waited only seven days before starting to collect tariffs on cheese in September.

Gellert asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful, halt their collection and order refunds with interest for affected importers.

It is the fourth major legal challenge to Trump's tariff policies. In February, the US Supreme Court struck down most of the tariffs he imposed in 2025, and a trade court later ruled against a temporary 10% global tariff. A separate challenge to tariffs tied to forced-labor allegations in international trade is still pending.