{"id":19589,"date":"2026-07-28T06:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19589"},"modified":"2026-07-28T06:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:42:45","slug":"small-businesses-launch-new-trump-tariff-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19589","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses launch new Trump tariff challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/0uS3fre-ZcsoiCdJIqAuqoDVWBo=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/01\/20\/1768937428251.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The small businesses that brought two high-profile<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/04\/16\/trump-tariffs-main-street-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\"> legal challenges<\/a> to President Trump&#8217;s trade agenda are suing to block the latest round of tariffs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The lawsuits set up another legal test of Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/economy\/tariffs\" target=\"_blank\">tariff<\/a> agenda after courts this year rejected one tariff regime and cast doubt on another.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s new: <\/strong>One lawsuit was filed on behalf of Burlap &amp; Barrel, which previously challenged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump&#8217;s<\/a> temporary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/02\/24\/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-section-122\" target=\"_blank\">Section 122 tariffs<\/a>, and watch retailer Collective Horology. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The other was brought by toymaker Learning Resources \u2014 which won a Supreme Court case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/02\/20\/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-illegal\" target=\"_blank\">overturning Trump&#8217;s tariffs<\/a> under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act\u2014 along with a flooring manufacturer and affiliated firms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick: <\/strong>The lawsuits challenge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/23\/trump-tariffs-trade-labor\" target=\"_blank\">the administration&#8217;s new tariffs<\/a> imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act, which took effect last week as the White House&#8217;s temporary Section 122 levies expired. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The action generally imposes tariffs of 10% or 12.5% on imports from more than 60 economies that the Trump administration says failed to adequately block goods made with forced labor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/strong> The Liberty Justice Center, representing Burlap &amp; Barrel and Collective Horology, argues that the administration stretched what Congress intended as a targeted trade remedy into a sweeping global tariff regime.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer &#8220;determined the tariff rates first &#8230; and assembled economy-specific findings afterward to justify them,&#8221; the public interest law firm, which previously represented businesses challenging Trump&#8217;s tariffs, alleges in a complaint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The suit filed on behalf <\/strong>of Learning Resources says Trump officials relied on generalized findings rather than demonstrating how each country&#8217;s practices burdened U.S. commerce, as the statute requires.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The complaint alleges that the administration imposed the same set of sweeping global tariffs after earlier legal defeats: &#8220;The third time&#8217;s not the charm,&#8221; the complaint says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/strong> Collective Horology co-founder Asher Rapkin tells Axios that the earlier tariff regimes cost the watch retailer more than $160,000, with refunds from the earlier invalidated tariffs still outstanding.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Section 301 tariffs are most definitely going to hamstring my business in the exact same way that the previous two phases of tariffs have,&#8221; Rapkin says.<\/li>\n<li>The company imports watches from Switzerland, where Rapkin says there is virtually no U.S. manufacturing alternative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flashback:<\/strong> Courts have already rejected Trump&#8217;s first attempt to impose sweeping tariffs under emergency powers, while a separate challenge to his temporary replacement tariffs under Section 122 remains on appeal. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Now:<\/strong> The challenge has shifted from whether the administration has tariff authority to how officials are exercising their trade power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side:<\/strong> The White House says the tariffs lawfully target foreign failures to block forced labor imports.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Section 301 tariffs have proven to be a legally durable tool since the President&#8217;s first term, and they remain so now,&#8221; White House spokesman Kush Desai tells Axios in a statement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>Small businesses have been consequential players in the fight over Trump&#8217;s tariff power, repeatedly forcing the administration back into court as it pivots from one legal authority to the next.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This story was updated with comment from the White House.<\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The small businesses that brought two high-profile legal challenges to President Trump&#8217;s trade agenda are suing to block the latest round of tariffs. Why it matters: The lawsuits set up another legal test of Trump&#8217;s tariff agenda after courts this year rejected one tariff regime and cast doubt on another. What&#8217;s new: One lawsuit was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/0uS3fre-ZcsoiCdJIqAuqoDVWBo=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/01\/20\/1768937428251.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}