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CALIFORNIA WALNUT FARM JOINS LAWSUIT CHALLENGING PRESIDENT'S TARIFFS
Aug. 20, 2019
Agri-Pulse reports:
A walnut farm in California is supporting a lawsuit challenging the president's authority to impose Section 232 tariffs for national security reasons, saying U.S. agriculture has suffered "irreparable" harm.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 6 by the American Institute for International Steel. Basrai Farms has since filed a "friend of the court" brief. The lawsuit is an appeal of a March decision by the Court on International Trade.
Retaliatory tariffs "have significantly decreased the total amount and price of U.S. agricultural exports, including walnuts," asserts the farm, a 300-acre operation in Yuba City growing walnuts and prunes. "The walnut sector alone is facing retaliatory tariffs ranging from 15 to 100 percent from China, India and Turkey," markets that made up 15% of the walnut shipments in 2016-17, the brief says.
Section 232 "unconstitutionally extends the President's authority to adjust imports over the entire economy regardless of any impact on 'national security,'" Basrai Farms argues.
Looking to the future: Basrai Farms says the mere threat of tariffs on European and Japanese automobiles is already affecting the ag industry, and cites a study showing that if additional Section 232 tariffs are placed on cars, Gross Domestic Product GDP would fall by about one-third of a percentage point and result in a loss of more than 200,000 full-time jobs.
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