(KGW8)—Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is leading a multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s global trade war.
The lawsuit argues that the president has no authority to “arbitrarily impose tariffs” as he has done in the last three months, including his April 2 announcement that imposed sweeping new tariffs on much of the world, causing global market chaos.
President Trump’s import taxes, which he calls “reciprocal tariffs,” impose a baseline 10% tariff on all countries and higher tariffs on countries the White House claims have the largest trade deficits with the U.S. To do this, the president invoked powers under the once-obscure International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The 12-state lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade challenges the White House’s interpretation and use of the IEEPA, stating that the president cannot impose these tariffs under the law, nor does it allow worldwide tariffs to be imposed using it, as they were not in response to an actual “emergency.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, Rayfield called Trump’s tariff policy “nothing short of chaotic” and that the tariffs have already begun increasing prices to various items, from groceries to utilities, adding that the state gets more than 70% of its natural gas from Canada.
“Ultimately, it’s going to cost our state jobs and our country jobs,” he warned.
Rayfield cited academic research saying that 95% of the costs of tariffs will be passed to U.S. consumers, adding that Oregon economists have estimated that average Oregonian households will be forced to pay $3,800 more a year for everyday goods.
Rayfield accused Trump of misusing an emergency act for “the sole purpose of avoiding oversight and the safeguards that Congress has put in place” and that no other president since the law went into effect has used it to implement tariffs.
Other state attorneys general during the conference similarly lambasted the current policy and its effects on their states.
The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration in federal court over the tariff policy, saying his state could lose billions in revenue as the largest importer in the U.S., calling it “recklessness at another level.” Said lawsuit asked the judge to immediately pause the tariffs.
Other related federal suits include members of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, the New Civil Liberties Alliance in Florida and the Liberty Justice Center in the U.S. Court of International Trade.
The International Monetary Fund warned that the outlooks for the U.S. and the world have significantly worsened in the wake of the tariffs and the uncertainty they have created. Every country in the world is affected by the hikes in U.S. import taxes, which have lifted the average U.S. duties to about 25%, the highest in a century, according to the IMF.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge.