Former United States trade officials call Trump’s Section 301 tariffs illegal
Three former United States trade officials filed an amicus brief in the New York‑based Court of International Trade arguing that President Trump’s Section 301 tariffs are illegal. The brief warns that aggregating dozens of investigations to justify sweeping tariffs lacks support in the statute’s text, legislative history, or fifty‑year practice.
Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, the lead international trade lawyer at the Treasury Department under President Carter, helped draft Section 301 and the Trade Act of 1974. Ambassador Carla A. Hills, who served as USTR Ambassador under President George H.W. Bush, oversaw Section 301 applications during her term. Warren H. Maruyama, former USTR General Counsel, helped shape and carry out major Section 301 actions across administrations. In March, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer opened two Section 301 probes—one into 60 economies over forced‑labor safeguards that yielded 10‑12.5 % tariffs in July, and another into 16 economies accused of excess industrial capacity, with duties still pending.
“Nothing in the statute authorizes USTR to aggregate dozens of separate investigations… in order to justify tariffs of unprecedented breadth against multiple countries,” Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, former lead international trade lawyer at the U.S. Treasury Department and later Deputy General Counsel and General Counsel of the Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations under President Jimmy Carter said.
“Such an approach finds no support in the statutory text, legislative history, or the consistent practice under Section 301 during the more than fifty years since its enactment,” Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, former lead international trade lawyer at the U.S. Treasury Department and later Deputy General Counsel and General Counsel of the Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations under President Jimmy Carter said.
USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer launched two separate Section 301 investigations into U.S. trade partne
What we know
Three former top United States trade officials are speaking out against President Donald Trump’s recent tariff scheme and saying that the administration’s duties on dozens of American trading partners are, in essence, illegal.
USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer launched two separate Section 301 investigations into U.S. trade partners in March, following the Trump administration’s crushing loss in the Supreme Court one month prior.
Greer launched an investigation into 60 global economies on the allegation that they failed to impose or enact effective safeguards against the importation of goods made with forced labor, and in July, tariffs on goods from those countries were imposed, ranging from 10-12.5 percent.
A separate Section investigation into 16 economies was launched around the same time over allegations that they maintain excess industrial capacity, or the ability to create too high a volume of goods for their existing domestic or export markets.
The high court declared the president’s preeminent tariff scheme, levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on “Liberation Day” in April 2025, to be illegal.