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New Jersey Food Importer Sues Trump Administration Over 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods

October 20, 2026 Add Comment

A New Jersey-based food importer has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging 50 percent tariffs imposed on a wide range of Canadian goods, arguing the president overstepped his legal authority by bypassing Congress.

Gellert Global Group, which imports Canadian cheese, filed the suit on Tuesday in the US Court of International Trade in New York. The company says the tariffs have driven up its costs and disrupted relationships with suppliers on both sides of the border. According to the complaint, Gellert paid more than $520,000 in duties between September 16 and October 11.

“Gellert Global Group has spent generations building trusted relationships with suppliers, customers and partners across the food industry,” said Thomas Gellert, the company’s co-chief executive officer, in a press release. “These tariffs disrupt those relationships overnight and create costs and uncertainty that ripple through the entire supply chain.”

What the Tariffs Cover

Trump first imposed the 50 percent tariffs over the summer, accusing Canada of discriminating against American-made cars, alcohol and dairy products. The measures were expanded in September to cover more products, including furniture, clothing and wine, in response to Canadian retaliatory tariffs.

The lawsuit argues the underlying law does not apply to the Canadian policies the administration says are discriminatory, noting that two of them arose in response to Trump’s own tariffs, while a third involves Canadian dairy policy governed by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The complaint also questions why Canadian cheese is being taxed over disputes that largely concern alcohol and automobiles.

Photo by Tiger Lily on Pexels

Legal Basis in Question

The case centres on Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which allows a president to impose tariffs of up to 50 percent on imports from countries found to discriminate against American businesses. The provision had never been invoked by any president until Trump used it this year.

The lawsuit, filed on Gellert’s behalf by the nonprofit Liberty Justice Center, argues that newer laws passed by Congress, including Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, require investigations, public comment and other procedural safeguards that override the 1930 statute.

“No president should have the power to pull a dormant statute off the shelf and use it to impose sweeping tariffs or import bans without the limits Congress required,” said Sara Albrecht, chairman and CEO of the Liberty Justice Center.

“The administration cannot skip those protections by reaching for a 1930 statute that no president had ever used to impose a tariff,” added Jeffrey Schwab, the organization’s senior counsel and director of litigation.

The complaint also contends that even if Trump were permitted to use the older law, the administration failed to meet its procedural requirements, including a mandated 30-day waiting period before tariffs can be collected on newly added products. According to the lawsuit, the administration waited only seven days before collecting tariffs on cheese added to the list in September.

Part of a Wider Legal Fight

Gellert is asking the court to declare the tariffs illegal, halt their collection, and order refunds with interest for affected importers. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

The lawsuit is the fourth major legal challenge to Trump’s tariff policy. In February, the US Supreme Court struck down most of the tariffs he had imposed in 2025, and a trade court later ruled against a temporary 10 percent global tariff. A separate challenge over tariffs tied to alleged forced labour in international trade remains pending.

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Terence Miller
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Terence Miller studied finance and economics, and spent a lot of that time more interested in why markets behave the way they do than in memorizing formulas for exams. He's drawn to stories about smaller companies and the decisions behind them: why a founder pivoted, why a deal fell apart, why a "sure thing" wasn't. He's still figuring out his voice as a writer, which he thinks is a more honest thing to admit than pretending otherwise. When he's not writing, he's probably reading earnings calls for fun, which he recognizes is a strange hobby to have.