Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, is to challenge the legal basis for President Trump’s tariffs with a warning that his state stands to lose billions of dollars in trade.
READ MORE: https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/gavin-newsom-sue-trump-tariffs-9kgfkds0g
Newsom is set to announce California’s lawsuit, the first from a US state, on Wednesday alongside Rob Bonta, the state attorney-general, in the farm belt of the Central Valley which grows many crops for export.
California has the largest economy of any US state and has $675 billion in trade. Its three largest trading partners — China, Canada and Mexico — have been hit with Trump’s steepest tariffs of 145 per cent, 25 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. Goods from all other countries were given a baseline 10 per cent tariff.
A White House document published on Tuesday night raised the stakes with Beijing even further, saying: “China faces up to a 245 per cent tariff on imports to the United States as a result of its retaliatory actions.”
Newsom, 57, is seen as a potential presidential candidate for the Democrats but has been wary of a direct confrontation since Trump returned to power, greeting him in January with a handshake during a row over providing water to fight southern Californian wildfires.
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