Jamieson Greer (Credit: Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer accused Democratic-led states challenging President Donald Trump’s new tariffs of putting foreign sweatshops ahead of American workers and siding with China against U.S. efforts to eradicate forced labor from global supply chains.
“It’s official: Twenty-five Democrat-run states, spanning from Michigan to California, have made their priorities clear: foreign sweatshops come before protecting hardworking Americans,” Greer said in a statement obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.
The statement is the Trump administration’s most forceful response yet to lawsuits filed by 25 states seeking to overturn tariffs of 10 percent to 12.5 percent imposed last month on goods from more than 80 countries.
The states, led by New York, California and Illinois, filed their complaint Monday in the U.S. Court of International Trade. They argue the administration used forced labor as a pretext for rebuilding the global tariff system invalidated by the Supreme Court in February.
“After losing at the Supreme Court, the administration is once again trying to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said when the lawsuit was filed.
Greer rejected that characterization, saying the states are asking courts to give countries that tolerate forced labor in their supply chains a free pass. (Read more: Breitbart News, 8/5/2026) (Archive)