Former trade officials challenge Trump's use of Section 301 tariffs

Three former trade officials have filed a brief with the Court of International Trade (CIT) arguing that President Donald Trump is attempting to illegally shift core tariff authority from Congress to the Executive Branch. The officials contend that the administration is using Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to claim sweeping power to impose broad, economy-wide tariffs that are untethered from the original statute.

The authors of the brief include Alan Wm. Wolff, who helped draft the Trade Act; Carla Hills, former USTR under George H. W. Bush; and Warren Maruyama, a former USTR lawyer and general counsel. They argue that Section 301 was intended to address specific unfair trade practices by individual partners rather than serving as a license for sweeping tariffs on nearly all U.S. imports.

The Trump administration has utilized the provision under the pretext that trading partners have failed to effectively prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor.