Washington: Two small U.S. businesses filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging new tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump's administration on several U.S. trading partners due to forced labor concerns.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Liberty Justice Center announced it had initiated the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade on behalf of Burlap and Barrel, an online retailer based in New York, and Collective Horology, a retailer based in California. This legal action follows the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) announcement of new tariffs, reaching up to 12.5 percent, on South Korea and other economies.

The USTR's decision to implement these duties came after investigations into 60 economies under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, assessing their efforts to prohibit imports produced with forced labor. The tariffs became effective on Friday as the administration's prior 150-day global tariff of 10 percent expired.

The lawsuit contends that the USTR's imposition of nearly uniform tariffs across 60 different economies was "arbitrary and capricious," lacking a detailed, evidence-based rationale for how these tariffs would address the issues identified by the USTR. It also argues that the USTR has not justified how taxing these products will prompt foreign governments to amend their import practices.

The Liberty Justice Center emphasized that the new tariffs impact lawful imports with no proven link to forced labor, affecting products imported by American small businesses that maintain transparent and responsible supply chains.

Sara Albrecht, the chairman and CEO of the Liberty Justice Center, stated, "Forced labor is morally indefensible, but an important objective does not give the government permission to ignore the law." She added, "The administration allowed one global tariff to expire and immediately replaced it with another under a different statute. Changing the statute doesn't change the law. Every tariff authority has limits, and every administration must respect them."

The Liberty Justice Center previously challenged the Trump administration's emergency tariffs, which were overturned by the Supreme Court in February.

In response to a reporter's inquiry about the legal viability of the new U.S. tariffs, President Trump noted, "These tariffs have been up for a long time" and claimed they have received approval for years. He expressed disagreement with the Supreme Court's decision against his emergency tariffs, stating, "I thought the decision by the Supreme Court was not a good one. But we have many forms of tariffs."

President Trump defended his tariff policy, emphasizing its role in attracting investments, "Largely because of tariffs, we have $19.2 trillion being invested in our country," he asserted during a press session at the White House. "And without tariffs, we would be in big trouble."