Biden White House Defends Trump China Tariffs in Legal Showdown

The Biden administration is defending President Donald Trump’s 2018 expansion of tariffs on Chinese goods against lawsuits brought by thousands of U.S. companies, which claim Trump overstepped his authority and that his own statements and tweets undermined the official justification for the crackdown.

Attorneys for importers including Walmart, Disney, Lululemon, and Walgreens claim Trump illegally increased the number of Chinese goods subject to duties under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974.

But the Biden administration, in its first substantive answer to the complaints, said a president’s trade policy through the U.S. trade representative is ...