The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that President Donald Trump’s 10% global tariff was imposed illegally under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a decision cheered by the Main Street Alliance.
“Donald Trump keeps trying to make life more expensive for working people and small businesses. The courts keep telling him no,” it said in a statement.
This iteration of tariffs came into being after the Supreme Court deemed Trump’s original tariffs to be illegal in February. Trump then enacted these new tariffs, which were also ruled to be illegally imposed.
The Main Street Alliance is a national network of 30,000 small business owners. And the tariffs have provided an economic headache to these businesses, with the Main Street Alliance noting, “tariffs were never a serious economic strategy. They were a tax on working families and small businesses dressed up as toughness.”
The organization went on to say that it was executive overreach and not a trade policy.
“Let’s be honest about who actually pays these tariffs. Not China. Not multinational corporations. American consumers and small businesses, most of whom don’t have the margins to absorb sudden cost spikes every time the administration decides to relitigate its trade wars. They raise prices on customers, cut staff, delay expansion or simply take the hit themselves.”
Numerous small companies have faced economic uncertainty thanks to tariffs, including Wisconsin’s Wonderstate Coffee, and Wisconsin businesses paid about $3.5 billion in tariffs in 2025.
“Main Street Alliance will keep fighting for policies that lower costs for small businesses and working families, instead of making everyday life more expensive,” the statement said.
