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.
A “friend of the court” brief filed in the New York-based Court of International Trade (CIT) in support of plaintiffs suing the federal government detailed the reasoning of the three erstwhile trade officials who served across multiple administrations. Their direct involvement in the creation of Section 301 and the Trade Act of 1974—as well as their role in applying it in the modern era—gave them the ability to provide the court with “unique insight into the statute’s origins, purpose, and historical application,” they wrote.
Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff played a central role in creating Section 301 as the 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 in President Jimmy Carter’s administration. Wolff originated the proposal that became Section 301 and was the lead draftsman of the Trade Act of 1974.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Carla...