Costco is suing the Trump administration to stop and recover tariffs the president imposed earlier this year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), arguing the federal government overstepped its legal authority.

The wholesale giant argues that IEEPA — a 1977 U.S. law that gives the president authority to “ regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency” — does not authorize Trump to impose tariffs.

“IEEPA grants the president certain powers, but they ‘may only be exercised to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared for purposes of this chapter and may not be exercised for any other purpose,’ ” Costco said in the complaint, quoting the law.

The law

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