California challenged customs duties imposed by Donald Trump on Wednesday, April 16, because the State led by Democrats considers that the US president could not institute them without the Congress agreement.
“Trump does not have unilateral power to radically alter the country’s economic landscape. This is not how our democracy works,” said California Rob Bronta attorney at a press conference.
“Congress did not authorize these customs tasks, and even less the taxes of customs duties and then increase them, suspended them and then restored them immediately by whim,” he insisted.
California represents 14% of American GDP
From his return to power, the Republican billionaire has precipitated the world in a commercial war, returning to decades of free trade.
China is subject to 145% of US customs tariffs and certain imports from Canada and Mexico are taxed 25%.
In early April, Donald Trump also established customs duties of 10% in the products of dozens of countries around the world and promised other much more punitive taxes, before suspending them.
With this protectionist policy, the president claims to want to return industrial production to the United States.
But in the immediate future, he especially creates much uncertainty and will result in an increase in consumer prices, bankruptcy of companies and the loss of jobs, according to many economists.
California, which only represents the fifth world economy and weighs 14% of American GDP, is at the forefront of this economic agitation.
The cradle of the technological sector, the most populous state in the country, is also the first manufacturing and agricultural producer in the country. It depends a lot on their relations with Mexico, Canada and China.
“This guy destroys the economy of the United States”
“No other state will no longer be affected by the consequences of this uncertainty,” said the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
“It is an unconsciousness. (…) This guy destroys the economy of the United States,” added the 57 -year -old Democrat, whom the US press regularly provides presidential ambitions by 2028.
Gavin Newsom accused Donald Trump of having “betrayed the people who supported him,” noting that the commercial war particularly affects the farmers, who largely voted for the Republican businessman.
The governor also denounced the fall in the markets caused by this policy, which is the growing “retirement savings” of the Americans.
At the beginning of April, the governor had already announced that California was going to look for agreements with the rest of the world to be exempt from Customs response to the United States.
According to the legal action launched on Wednesday, the 1977 law invoked by Donald Trump does not allow him to impose customs duties, a power that the US Constitution attributes to Congress.
The fifteenth legal procedure against Trump
“Where is Congress? (…) do your job!” He tacit Gavin Newsom, Brocade the Republican majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
This is the fifteenth legal procedure presented by California against the Trump administration since the return of the Republican billionaire in power. The Democratic State particularly disputes the interrogation of the Land Law and the power granted to Elon Musk to reduce the Federal State Budget.
During his first term, California had resistance to Donald Trump, having the intention of more than 120 legal actions against his government.
Source: BFM TV
