Gellert Global Group, a family-run U.S. food business, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade to block the Trump administration's 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. The Liberty Justice Center filed the case for the company and a proposed class of importers. The suit argues the administration exceeded its authority under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
The complaint seeks a court ruling that the tariffs are unlawful, an order halting their collection and interest-bearing refunds for importers who paid them. The Liberty Justice Center also filed motions for a preliminary injunction and for summary judgment.
President Donald Trump used Section 338 in July to impose the tariffs on products including hockey sticks, wine, honey and wigs, according to CNBC. The law is part of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, and no president had used it to impose a tariff until this year, the Liberty Justice Center said. The administration justified the duties by citing Canadian policies on dairy, alcohol and American-made automobiles, according to Reuters.
The suit argues Section 338 allows tariffs only to offset foreign discrimination against U.S. commerce, and that the Canadian policies the administration cited do not justify the duties. Two of the measures arose in response to Trump's own tariffs, while the third involves dairy policies governed by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the group said. It also argues that Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 superseded Section 338.
The lawsuit says the administration added Canadian cheese to tariff lists meant to address Canadian liquor policies and automobile tariffs, though its dairy proclamation does not cover cheese. It also says the administration broke Section 338's 30-day waiting period. On Sept. 8, the administration added cheeses Gellert imports to the tariff list and began collecting duties seven days later. The suit seeks refunds of those duties.
Gellert pays a 50% tariff on the Canadian cheeses it imports, while Canada's retaliatory tariffs hit American-made cheeses sold by its Canadian division. One of its Canadian suppliers buys milk from upstate New York dairy farmers, makes brie in Canada and ships it back to the U.S., so the tariffs reach farmers and businesses on both sides of that transaction, the group said.
"This case is not about the president. It is about the presidency," Sara Albrecht, chairman and CEO of the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement. "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."
Jeffrey M. Schwab, the group’s senior counsel and director of litigation, said Section 301 already gives the executive branch a tool that requires an investigation and public comment. "The administration cannot skip those protections by reaching for a 1930 statute that no president had ever used to impose a tariff," Schwab said.
Thomas Gellert, co-chief executive officer of Gellert Global Group, said the tariffs disrupt long-built supplier and customer relationships and create costs and uncertainty across the supply chain.
The Liberty Justice Center previously challenged tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and is contesting the use of Section 122 and Section 301 for broad global tariffs. The Supreme Court rejected the bulk of the 2025 tariffs Trump put in place when it ruled in February, according to Reuters.
The White House had not responded to a request for comment on the new suit, according to CNBC.