UPDATE 6 AM Eastern April 11, 2025

This article originally appeared April 7. It was updated to show that President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on China during the week. The president has placed a total of 145% in additional duties on China in 2025. It was also updated to show China's latest counter tariffs.

A nonprofit conservative-leaning law firm has sued President Donald Trump over tariffs he’s placed on China while some constitutional experts are raising questions over the legality of the White House’s levies. Still, so far, America’s 47^th president shows no signs of dialing back the duties.

To the contrary: Trump hiked import levies on China the week of April 6 in response to export curbs and additional tariffs that China had placed on U.S. imports in response to the levies America’s president slapped China with the previous week. Added up, Trump has placed a 145% additional tariff rate on China this year. Trump has also eliminated the de minimis exemption importing rule as it pertains to China and Hong Kong.

In the escalating trade war, China has raised tariffs on U.S. imports to 125%. China's foreign ministry said that Beijing will continue to take “resolute and forceful” measures to protect its interests, but indicated it was open to talks. “If the U.S. genuinely wants to resolve the problem through dialogue and negotiation, it should show an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said.

Trump's administration countered that view. “It’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate, because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “They have the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, and I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them.”

A deep-dive on #tariffs, the #economy and what it all means for the #promoproducts industry, with insights from industry leaders and economic experts.

The Fallout From Trump’s ‘Worse Than Expected’ Tariffs https://t.co/kbsUkHZHpO

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) April 3, 2025

The tariffs on China and other nations have the promotional products industry and sectors across the economy reeling as predictions of rampant inflation and a higher likelihood of recession swirl.

In promo in particular, the tariffs themselves will, if left in place, significantly increase promo product pricing, among other impacts related to sourcing. Indeed, some suppliers are already increasing prices.

Still, it’s the ripple effects of the tariffs that really stand to hurt promo – how they’re causing uncertainty in the broader marketplace, triggering widespread worries among business leaders. The phenomenon has already led some end-buyers to pull back on swag spending, as evidenced by developments like RFPs that had been out being revoked, ASI Media has learned.

“If these tariffs stick, I expect the promo industry to see a demand slowdown, much higher pricing, further supply chain disruption and a major strain on small companies,” a top executive at a leading supplier who wished to remain anonymous told ASI Media. “The industry will get through it, but not without some collateral damage.”

NCLA Files a Lawsuit

There are some working to ensure the tariffs don’t stick – regardless of what Trump may do.

Those include the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit conservative-leaning law firm that has sued Trump, members of his administration, the Department of Homeland Security and others over tariffs placed on China in 2025.

NCLA brought the suit on behalf of Emily Ley, owner of Simplified, a Pensacola, FL-based retailer of notebooks, journals, recipe binders and planners. NCLA is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida to declare tariffs Trump placed on China under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as unlawful – and to vacate them and to enjoin federal authorities from any enforcement of the levies.

“By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the (IEEPA) statute does not authorize, President Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers.” Andrew Morris, senior litigation counsel, NCLA

While the case is before a Trump-appointed judge and its outcome uncertain, NCLA is adamant that the president lacks the power to invoke IEEPA to implement tariffs. The firm said the statute authorizes the president to take specific emergency actions, like imposing sanctions or freezing assets, to protect the United States from foreign threats. However, it does not authorize Trump or any president to impose tariffs. In its nearly 50-year history, no other president – including Trump in his first term – has ever tried to use the IEEPA to impose tariffs.

“By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the (IEEPA) statute does not authorize, President Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers,” said Andrew Morris, senior litigation counsel, NCLA.

NCLA said the China tariffs harm Simplified, which – like many promo businesses – relies on importing products/materials from China. Trump’s tariffs will force Ley to make higher tariff payments, driving up Simplified’s costs and prices for its customers, the law firm said.

“The constitutional power ‘to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises’ and ‘to regulate commerce with foreign Nations’ belongs to Congress,” said John Vecchione, an NCLA senior litigation counsel. “The administration’s actions followed none of these constitutional commands, and the statute it cites does not even use the word ‘tariff’ or ‘tax.’ This unlawful ‘impost’ must fall.”

NCLA is hoping the case will be adjudicated before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Politico reported that more legal challenges to tariffs could be on the way.

The media outlet stated that lawyers and representatives for a number of business groups are considering filing lawsuits against the 10% baseline import tariffs and since-paused-for-90-days reciprocal tariffs that Trump unveiled April 3, but there’s widespread hesitancy to do so. Attorneys and business leaders fear backlash from the administration and are grappling with uncertainty, thinking the president could perhaps soon significantly reduce or remove the tariffs altogether.

Still, a senior executive at a trade association told Politico: “All options are being considered.”

Legality of Tariffs Called Into Question

Trump has argued that he’s on solid legal ground in leveraging IEEPA to impose tariffs on China, given that nation’s alleged role in supplying fentanyl and its related chemicals to the United States, which the White House says constitutes a national emergency. The administration has also called the U.S. trade deficit an emergency that empowers Trump to use the IEEPA as vehicle for inking new tariffs into law.

But some legal experts question the thinking.

“IEEPA has a long list of things that the president can do and nowhere does it say ‘tariffs,’” Liza Goitein, senior director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, told Politico. “There is absolutely a basis on which to challenge the use of IEEPA for tariffs based on the Supreme Court’s own jurisprudence … there’s some likelihood of success on this lawsuit on that grounds.”

10%
The baseline tariff rate President Donald Trump implemented on virtually all imports. The rate went into effect April 5.

Paul Sracic, a professor of politics and international relations at Youngstown State University and an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, penned an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in which he stated that “Mr. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs stretch IEEPA beyond its intended scope, sidestepping Congress’s constitutional authority over trade and taxation. This undermines the separation of powers and sets a dangerous precedent for unchecked executive overreach.”

Sracic said federal authorities enacted IEEPA in 1977. It allows the president what he described as “broad authority” to regulate international economic transactions when a national emergency has been declared.

145%
The additional rate in tariffs that President Trump said has placed on China-made imports in 2025.

“The law’s purpose was to address genuine crises – like foreign aggression or economic sabotage – not to serve as a catch-all to implement domestic policy preferences,” Sracic said. “Mr. Trump’s tariffs aren’t regulatory tweaks; they are transformative economic policies with far-reaching consequences. IEEPA’s text offers no clear mandate for such sweeping actions.”

Under Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution, Congress has sole authority to control tariffs, which it has done by passing detailed tariff statutes, NCLA noted. “The president cannot bypass those statutes by invoking ‘emergency’ authority in another statute that does not mention tariffs,” the law firm stated in further explaining its lawsuit against Trump over tariffs.

NCLA stated that Trump’s attempt to use the IEEPA violates the law as written and invites the application of the Supreme Court’s Major Questions Doctrine, which tells courts not to discern policies of “vast economic and political significance” in a law without explicit congressional authorization.

“If the IEEPA were held to permit this executive order, then the statute would run afoul of the nondelegation doctrine because it lacks an ‘intelligible principle’ to limit or guide the president’s discretion in imposing tariffs,” NCLA stated.

In more laymen’s terms, Vecchione told Politico: “If this was Red Dawn and the enemy was coming across the border and the president invoked IEEPA, he still can’t put in tariffs. It’s not what it’s for.”

Whether the NCLA case or another to be filed, attorneys may ultimately have to duke it out before the Supreme Court to settle the matter. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs remain in play.