Latest news with #UnitedStates-Canadian
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Montana Farmers Union seeks to join lawsuit against tariffs on Canada
An aerial view from a drone shows a combine being used to harvest the soybeans. (Photo by Joe Raedle | Getty Images) The Montana Farmers Union on Monday filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by four Blackfeet Nation tribal members seeking an injunction against the Trump administration's tariffs on Canada. The organization, which has been around since 1912, said that joining the case was a way to continue fighting 'on behalf of family farmers and ranchers.' 'The executive branch has overstepped its constitutional and statutory authority on these tariffs. Montana farmers and ranchers can't afford any more uncertainty or any more financial stressors – especially not random tariffs,' MFU President Walter Schweitzer said in a press release. Plaintiffs State Sen. Susan Webber and Jonathan St. Goddard, both enrolled members of the Blackfeet Nation, originally filed the lawsuit in federal court earlier this month against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States of America, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, arguing that the tariffs levied by the administration against Canada violates Indigenous treaty rights and exceeds presidential authority. The suit claims the tariffs violate a 1794 treaty exempting tribes along the United States-Canadian border from being taxed or levied on goods between the nation. It also challenges the Trump administration's ability to use emergency powers to bypass Congress to impose tariffs. Trump has declared that the fentanyl drug crisis at America's borders constitute a national emergency, though Customs and Border Patrol have only seized 19 kilograms of fentanyl coming from Canada compared to 9,600 kilograms coming from Mexico. Monday's step to intervene was taking action for Montana family farmers and ranchers who 'are facing dire financial and mental impacts if the tariffs remain in effect,' according to the release. 'MFU's members rely on a predictable and stable trade market and the tariffs imposed by the President not only exceed the President's constitutional and statutory authority, they've 'wallop[ed]' the agricultural community in Montana, as no one can 'plan or prepare,'' the proposed complaint states. 'Because of the President's tariffs, their goods will be more expensive to export, which will result in reduced profits and lost customers. Even worse, farms and ranches that have been in families for generations must be sold simply because the President's isolationist and unlawful approach is incongruous with the international market with which these farmers and ranchers have been dealing and relying upon for decades. MFU's members do not have robust markets in the United States for the crops they grow and those markets cannot be developed overnight,' according to court filings. According to the Office of United States Trade Representative, Montana's largest market is Canada, with $869 million in goods exported to the state's northern neighbor in 2024 — 37% of total exports. The top agricultural exports to Canada in 2024 included $113 million in live cattle; $106 million in dried legumes, $25 million in brewing and distilling dregs, $10.2 million in barley, and $10.1 million in cigarettes, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The complaint from MFU mentions several members who have been impacted by the tariffs. One member, John Wicks, a fourth generation farmer from Liberty County, said he was in contractual discussions with a cross-border trading partner for his organic lentils, but was told they could not enter into a contract due to the instability of the trade market before the tariffs were imposed. Specifically, 'if American tariffs were going to be implemented, the partner would not take the crops,' harming Wicks financially, according to court filings 'Our Canadian partners either won't buy our crops or are offering significantly lower prices than our partners in the United States. Our partners in the United States know that our Canadian partners are doing this and are capitalizing on it by offering lower prices, so we're getting squeezed,' Wicks wrote in a declaration of support for MFU's filing. As of Wednesday afternoon, District Court Judge Dana Christensen had not issued a ruling on whether he would allow Montana Farmers Union to intervene. A hearing for the preliminary injunction will be held next Thursday at the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls. Attorneys for the federal government have filed a motion to move the case to the Court of International Trade in New York, arguing the District Court doesn't have jurisdiction over tariffs, but attorneys for the plaintiffs responded that case can be rightfully heard at the District Court as the lawsuit is over the constitutionality of executive orders. 'Farmers and ranchers have invested decades in developing reliable markets for our products,' Schweitzer said in the press release. 'Overnight, these random tariffs have destroyed markets that will take decades to rebuild. This is why the authority to impose tariffs resides in Congress because it provides a forum for public debate and input and ensures the benefit outweighs the harm.'
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Blackfeet tribal members sue to stop Trump tariffs against Canada
Photo illustration by Getty Images. When a wheel broke on Jonathan St. Goddard's tractor in late March, the nearest replacement he could find was in Saskatchewan for $1,253. When he brought back it back to Montana, he was slapped with a $308 tariff for the equipment, part of an expansive array of tariffs ordered by the Trump administration. On Friday in federal court, St. Goddard, along with state Sen. Susan Webber, D-Browning, filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge for an injunction against Trump's tariffs on Canada, arguing that it violates the treaty rights of Indigenous people across the nation, and saying that only Congress can approve tariffs, not the president, according to the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit centers on the Jay Treaty signed in 1794, ratified by Congress and signed into law by then-President George Washington, which exempted tribes along the United States-Canadian border from being taxed or levied on goods between the nations. The lawsuit, filed in the Great Falls division of Montana's federal courts, says that the 49th parallel, the longest continuous running border in the world between two nations, bisects more than 30 tribes whose ancestral lands span both countries. In addition to the Blackfeet tribe, other tribes split by the border include the Lakota, Salish, and Iroquois. Montana has 14 border crossings with Canada, spanning three provinces, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The lawsuit asks the court to halt the tariffs that affect Canada, or if not, declare that the emergency orders that implemented the tariffs be declared void for tribal members because they violate the 1794 treaty rights, which were ratified by Congress. 'The imposition of universal tariffs in the Canada Orders is an unconstitutional attempt by the executive to regulate commerce and violates plaintiffs' constitutional and treaty rights,' the lawsuit said. St. Goddard and Webber are being represented by Missoula lawyer Monica Tranel. But the lawsuit doesn't just focus on the treaty rights, it also challenges the Trump administration's ability to use emergency powers to impose tariffs. Trump has declared that the fentanyl drug crisis at America's borders have forced a national emergency. 'The plain language of the (International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977) does not include the power to 'tariff' or to 'tax.' The powers enumerated in the statute are extensive and specific. Omission of tariffs is significant given how clearly Congress referenced tariff authorities in other trade statutes. The IEEPA has been the basis for over 60 executive orders. It has never been used to impose tariffs,' the court filing said. The lawsuit said that only Congress has the power to negotiate treaties and trade agreements. While the Trump administrations has used the fentanyl problem to impose the tariffs, the lawsuit also contends that the tariffs have not targeted the problem. For example, Customs and Border Patrol intercepted 9,600 kilograms coming from Mexico, but only 19 kilograms of fentanyl from Canada. 'The executive orders do not address the differential or attempt to target the harm, they simply impose blanket tariffs on all borders without reference to the factual situation or any attempt to explain how universal tariffs, which are functioning like sanctions, will actually address the stated emergency,' the lawsuit stated. 'There is no link between the stated national security threat of imports from steel and aluminum and a 25% tariff on all goods, including a replacement tractor wheel necessary to continue farming and ranching.' The lawsuit also said that Montana's tourism and agricultural sectors will be harmed by the tariffs, two key industries for the state, and essential to Montana's tribal nations. 'Tourism reservations are cancelled, contracting jobs are off, farm and ranch operations have been thrown into high unpredictability, and businesses cannot plan,' the lawsuit said. 'The growing, tourism, and construction season is short in Montana. It cannot withstand see-saw tariffs that are on one day and higher the next.' Montana Farmers Union filed a declaration in favor of the lawsuit, saying that tariffs had the ability to hurt the farming and ranching community because of the trade between Canada and Montana, especially in the northern part of the state. 'Many Montana farmers' closest suppliers and buyers are just across the Canadian border. Farmers are going to get caught both ways by tariffs on both side of the borders instead of being able to rely on the historical network of businesses and family that have helped to spread their risk and workload,' said Walt Schweitzer, executive director of the Montana Farmers Union.
