---
title: A Spice Company and a Watch Retailer Are Suing the President Over Tariffs, Again
description: Two small US businesses have taken Donald Trump to court over his newest tariffs, the same week a stopgap tariff scheme collapsed and a new one took its plac...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-25T12:30:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-25T12:56:57.830Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/a-spice-company-and-a-watch-retailer-are-suing-the-president-over-tariffs-again
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-a-close-up-of-rustic-spices-such-as-chilies-and-turmeric-on--9575086.jpg
categories: Business
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

On Friday, two small American businesses filed suit against the Trump administration in the US Court of International Trade in New York, arguing that the president's newest round of tariffs, covering 60 trading partners including the European Union, exceeds his legal authority in exactly the way his previous tariffs already did. The plaintiffs are Burlap & Barrel, a New York-based online spice retailer, and Collective Horology, a California business supporting independent watchmakers, represented by the Liberty Justice Center, the nonprofit legal group that took Trump's last major tariff scheme all the way to the Supreme Court and won.

## A tariff that replaced itself at the stroke of midnight

The timing here is not incidental. On 20 February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that most of Trump's sweeping tariffs were unlawful, finding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give a president the authority to impose tariffs unilaterally on trading partners. Trump responded by imposing a new, temporary 10 per cent global tariff under a different legal authority, a workaround that was itself ruled illegal by the trade court and is currently under appeal. That temporary tariff expired at midnight this week. The administration had a replacement ready within hours, a new tariff of 10 to 12.5 per cent on 60 economies, this time invoked under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and justified on the grounds that those countries were not doing enough to stop the export of goods made with forced labor.

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