Cnn
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A group of American companies put a legal action on Monday arguing that President Donald Trump’s prices are illegal under the International Economic Economic Powers (IEEPA).
THE suit was filed with the American Court of International Trade by the Liberty Justice Center, a defense group of legal defenders competing for the name of five companies which, according to him, were “seriously injured” by the tariffs.
The ieepa gives the President the power to impose emergency economic powers in response to an “unusual and extraordinary threat” for national security or the economy, the criteria which, according to the complainants, in this case, have not been met. The complaint also alleges that the law does not allow the president to unilaterally impose prices.
“No one should have the power to impose taxes that have such large global economic consequences,” said Jeffrey Schwab, principal advisor to the Liberty Justice Center, in a statement. “The Constitution gives the power to set tax rates – including prices – at Congress, not to the President.”
In a statement to CNN, the White House spokesman Harrison Fields said that trade deficits with other countries are a “national emergency”.
“Never will the misleading still oppose him, but President Trump defends rue Main by ending our business partners – in particular China – by exploiting the United States,” said Fields. “Its plan levels for the rules of the game so that companies and workers are aimed at the national emergency of our country on chronic trade deficits.”
This is not the first legal challenge at Trump’s radical rates. On April 3, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a group for the defense of civil rights, filed a complaint arguing that the ieepa does not allow a president to promulgate prices. The prosecution was filed before the American district court of the North district of Florida in the name of Simplified, a company based in Florida which sells planners with materials imported from China.
“By invoking the power of emergency to impose a rate of sharing on imports from China that the law does not authorize, President Trump abused this power, usurped the right of the congress to control the prices and turned the separation of powers by the Constitution,” said Andrew Morris, Senior Lawyer in matters of NCLA, in a statement announcing the simplified combination.