A US food importer, Gellert Global Group, has challenged President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on Canadian goods, arguing that the administration is exceeding its legal authority. The lawsuit adds to ongoing court battles over Trump’s tariff policies as trade negotiations between the US and Canada remain stalled.
Gellert Global Group, a US food importer, filed a lawsuit on 20 October 2026 to stop new tariffs on Canadian goods. The company argues that the duties are another attempt to use presidential tariff power that courts have already rejected.
The case was filed in the US Court of International Trade in New York. The Liberty Justice Centre, a legal nonprofit, brought the lawsuit on Gellert’s behalf. Sara Albrecht, the centre’s chief executive, said no president should be able to revive an unused law to impose sweeping tariffs without the limits Congress set.
The tariffs and the law behind them
President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on a broad range of Canadian imports over the summer of 2026. The administration said the move answered Canada’s unfair treatment of US-made cars, alcohol and dairy goods.
The tariffs rely on Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. This is the first known use of that law in nearly a century.
The targeted goods include wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment. Gellert imports Canadian cheese that now faces the 50% duty. The company wants to represent a class of similarly affected businesses.
Earlier court battles
This is the fourth legal challenge to a broad tariff policy during Trump’s second term. In February 2026, the US Supreme Court struck down most of the tariffs Trump imposed in 2025. The administration then issued new tariffs, and states and businesses kept challenging them in court.
The trade court has already ruled against a temporary 10% global tariff. It is still weighing the legality of a third round of global tariffs, which the administration imposed to address forced labour in international trade.
Gellert argues that Section 338 has been overridden by later trade laws, including the Trade Act that the administration used for the forced labour tariffs earlier in 2026. The lawsuit states that every law granting tariff power sets strict limits, and the administration has repeatedly ignored them.
Trade talks remain stalled
Relations between the two countries have grown tense over the past months. On 22 August 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped a possible trade deal, calling the American demands unreasonable and made at the last minute. Washington then imposed the new tariffs, and Canada responded with its own tariffs on some US imports.
