A dormant 1930 statute put to work
A civil complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade takes aim at President Donald Trump's use of a Depression-era provision to place 50% duties on an array of Canadian products. Trump turned in July to Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a measure that had never before been used to levy a tariff in its 96 years, to target Canadian hockey sticks, wine, honey, wigs and other goods in response to what Washington described as discriminatory trade treatment by Ottawa.[S1][S2]
The plaintiff is Gellert Global Group, a New Jersey food importer whose cheeses fall under the duties. The company wants the court to rule the tariffs unlawful, stop their enforcement and direct the administration to return duties already collected, plus interest. The Liberty Justice Center, which previously succeeded in challenging Trump's reciprocal tariffs, represents Gellert.[S1][S5][S6]
What the complaint argues
The suit contends that Section 338 is a leftover of a tariff policy built on retaliation and has been effectively repealed by later laws. It further argues that even if the 1930 provision survives, the administration failed to meet its conditions: the statute allows action only after a factual finding that another country imposes unreasonable charges or trade limits on U.S. products, or that its customs rules otherwise disadvantage American goods, and then only duties calculated to offset that burden.[S1]
The complaint contends that none of the Canadian policies named in Trump's proclamations amount to discrimination against the United States. Two of them, the suit explains, were Ottawa's responses to Trump's own tariffs, among them duties the Supreme Court has ruled illegal, and answering retaliation with retaliation is not the same as discrimination. A third involves dairy quota rules agreed to under USMCA, the three-nation accord among Canada, Mexico and the United States, which the filing says grant American cheese more favorable access to Canada than cheese from nearly anywhere else gets.[S1]
The company's exposure and the wider fight
Gellert says it generates more than $1.7 billion in yearly revenue and imported $71 million worth of Canadian cheese in 2025, a range that includes sheep's and goat's milk cheeses, mascarpone, brie, camembert and borgonzola. Per the complaint, those imports entered duty-free under USMCA, yet in July the administration announced it would not extend the agreement for a further 16-year term. Gellert says the Section 338 duties now cost it 50% of the entered value of its Canadian cheese, roughly $40 million annually.[S1]
Gellert says it intends to absorb the costs through the end of the year but calls the arrangement unsustainable over the longer run, warning that continued tariffs would force price increases, lost or reduced sales, weaker customer loyalty, risks to product placements and supply chain disruption as producers scale back or close. Trump signed three proclamations on July 20 covering separate sets of Canadian imports, citing unfair treatment in the motor vehicle, alcohol and dairy sectors; the duties took effect Aug. 22 after late trade talks in Washington collapsed, and Canada responded with dollar-for-dollar tariffs on U.S. goods. The White House did not immediately comment on the suit.[S1][S4][S7]
