Alan Wm. Wolff is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization. Earlier he was U.S. deputy special representative for trade negotiations in the Carter administration and general counsel of the trade office in the Ford administration, and he later chaired the National Foreign Trade Council. He is the author of Revitalizing the World Trading System (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Case
Businesses and 25 states say Trump's 10% and 12.5% Section 301 tariffs on 60 economies are a pretext to revive struck-down global tariffs. The administration says they lawfully answer forced-labor import failures. As of September 30, 2026, no court has ruled.
Role at the time: Peterson Institute senior fellow and former deputy U.S. trade representative, whom the brief describes as the principal administration draftsman of the Trade Act of 1974, in the joint amicus brief of Carla A. Hills, Alan Wm. Wolff and Warren H. Maruyama
Statement summary
In a September 10, 2026 amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs, three former senior U.S. trade officials, Carla A. Hills, Alan Wm. Wolff and Warren H. Maruyama, said the case concerns the executive branch's attempt to transform Section 301's "targeted authority into a sweeping power to impose broad, economy-wide tariffs untethered from the statute Congress enacted." They said the text, structure and history of Section 301 show Congress intended it to address specific foreign practices identified through a meaningful investigation and supported by findings of harm to U.S. commerce.
“This case concerns the Executive Branch's attempt to transform that targeted authority into a sweeping power to impose broad, economy-wide tariffs untethered from the statute Congress enacted. The text, structure, and history of Section 301 demonstrate that Congress intended the provision to address specific foreign acts, policies, or practices identified through a meaningful investigation and supported by findings of harm to U.S. commerce.”
Relative to the Section 301 forced-labor tariffs, the amici argue the action exceeds what Section 301 allows, an express rejection of the tariffs as unauthorized. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization, because they dispute how the statute is read, but they go on to conclude the tariffs should be set aside.
Statement dates: September 10, 2026
Statement dates: September 10, 2026
