Costco Sues Trump Administration for Refund of Tariffs
The retail giant is seeking to recover money it has paid this year, should the Supreme Court rule that President Trump’s implementation of tariffs was unlawful.
The complaint, filed on Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade, argues that Mr. Trump misused a 1977 law in his move to implement tariffs on
products from more than 100 countries.
The lawsuit asserts that Congress, not the president, has the authority to set tariffs, and that Mr. Trump exceeded the authority granted to him by the law, the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
“The text of IEEPA does not use the word ‘tariff’ or any term of equivalent meaning,” Costco states in the lawsuit, which was reported earlier by
NBC News. The act allows the president to regulate or prohibit foreign transactions during a national emergency, but does not authorize the imposition of tariffs, according to the lawsuit.
Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said in a statement that the “economic consequences of the failure to uphold President Trump’s lawful tariffs are enormous and this suit highlights that fact. The White House looks forward to the Supreme Court’s speedy and proper resolution of this matter.”
It has said in the past that its use of the IEEPA is lawful because the law gives the president the authority to “regulate” the “importation” of foreign property to deal with emergencies.