3,500 U.S. companies including automakers sue over Trump-imposed Chinese tariffs

About 3,500 U.S. companies, including Tesla Inc, Ford Motor have sued the Trump administration in the last two weeks over the imposition of tariffs on over $300 billion (£235.35 billion) in Chinese-made goods.

The suits, submitted in the U.S. Court of International Trade, named U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the Customs and Border Protection agency and challenge what they refer to as an unlawful escalation of the U.S. trade war with China through the imposition of a third and fourth round of tariffs.

The legal challenges from a wide variety of firms argue the Trump administration failed to impose tariffs within a required 12-month period and did not adhere to administrative procedures.

The companies challenge the administration’s “unbounded and unlimited trade war impacting billions of dollars in goods imported from the People’s Republic of China by importers in the United States,” according to a lawsuit filed by auto parts manufacturer Dana Corp.

The suits challenge tariffs in two separate groups known as List 3 and List 4A.” List 3 includes 25% tariffs on about $200 billion in imports, while List 4A consisted of 7.5% tariffs on $120 billion in goods.

One suit argues the administration cannot broaden tariffs to other Chinese imports “for reasons untethered to the unfair intellectual property policies and practices it originally investigated.”

The Trump administration has maintained that tariffs on Chinese goods were justified because China was stealing intellectual property and forcing U.S. firms to transfer technology for access to China’s markets.