Trump invokes 96-year-old Section 338 to impose 50% tariffs on Canada, raising unresolved legal questions

President Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — the Smoot-Hawley statute no prior president had used — to impose 50% duties on roughly $20 billion in Canadian imports, citing alleged Canadian discrimination against U.S. dairy, auto and alcoholic-beverage exports. The authority, announced July 20, 2026 and effective August 19–22, has never been litigated; legal experts say it may have been superseded by the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and the Trade Act of 1974, and that the administration made no attempt to calculate the harm it was meant to offset, targeting unrelated goods such as hockey sticks and cement. Ottawa announced dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on about $27.6 billion of U.S. imports effective September 8, 2026; as of August 29 no court challenge had yet been filed.