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CTA Again Said to Be Mulling Court Challenge to Tariffs

Hiking the third tranche of U.S. tariffs on Chinese products rejuvenated talk inside CTA for challenging the duties in court, said informed people. Days before the increase, the policy talk there was about strategies to lobby Congress for removing the…

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tariffs once a U.S.-China trade deal was in the bag, they said. The List 4 proposal brought new urgency to the litigation chatter, we’re told. At least one holdout on the eight-member executive board opposes taking the administration to court until President Donald Trump has a chance to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit June 28-29 in Osaka, Japan, said a CTA member insider. The group hired Akin Gump last fall to draft a complaint challenging the Office of U.S. Trade Representative’s broad authority under the 1974 Trade Act to impose retaliatory tariffs against China without launching a new Section 301 investigation (see 1905170064). CTA tried shopping the complaint around to other trade associations for financial and legal backing, but got no takers, we’re told. The association didn’t comment Tuesday. The U.S.-China trade war caused a fivefold increase in tariffs on tech product imports from 2017 to 2018, said CompTIA Tuesday. “Should a 25-percent tariff rate apply to all tech product imports the costs could run into the tens of billions of dollars.” CompTIA encourages the U.S. and China to “reach a deal that protects American innovation and intellectual property.”