Montana Farmers Union seeks to join lawsuit against tariffs on Canada

The Montana Farmers Union on Monday filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by four Blackfeet Nation tribal members seeking an injunction against the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada.

The organization, which has been around since 1912, said that joining the case was a way to continue fighting “on behalf of family farmers and ranchers.” 

“The executive branch has overstepped its constitutional and statutory authority on these tariffs. Montana farmers and ranchers can’t afford any more uncertainty or any more financial stressors – especially not random tariffs,” MFU President Walter Schweitzer said in a press release. 

Plaintiffs State Sen. Susan Webber and Jonathan St. Goddard, both enrolled members of the Blackfeet Nation, originally filed the lawsuit in federal court earlier this month against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States of America, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, arguing that the tariffs levied by the administration against Canada violates Indigenous treaty rights and exceeds presidential authority. 

The suit claims the tariffs violate a 1794 treaty exempting tribes along the United States-Canadian border from being taxed or levied on goods between the nation. It also challenges the Trump administration’s ability to use emergency powers to bypass Congress to impose tariffs. Trump has declared that the fentanyl drug crisis at America’s borders constitute a national emergency, though Customs and Border Patrol have only seized 19 kilograms of fentanyl coming from Canada compared to 9,600 kilograms coming from Mexico.

Monday’s step to intervene was taking action for Montana family farmers and ranchers who “are facing dire financial and mental impacts if the tariffs remain in effect,” according to the release. 

“MFU’s members rely on a predictable and stable trade market and the tariffs imposed by the President not only exceed the President’s constitutional and statutory authority, they’ve ‘wallop[ed]’ the agricultural community in Montana, as no one can ‘plan or prepare,’” the proposed complaint states. 

“Because of the President’s tariffs, their goods will be more expensive to export, which will result in reduced profits and lost customers. Even worse, farms and ranches that have been in families for generations must be sold simply because the President’s isolationist and unlawful approach is incongruous with the international market with which these farmers and ranchers have been dealing and relying upon for decades. MFU’s members do not have robust markets in the United States for the crops they grow and those markets cannot be developed overnight,” according to court filings. 

According to the Office of United States Trade Representative, Montana’s largest market is Canada, with $869 million in goods exported to the state’s northern neighbor in 2024 — 37% of total exports. 

The top agricultural exports to Canada in 2024 included $113 million in live cattle; $106 million in dried legumes, $25 million in brewing and distilling dregs, $10.2 million in barley, and $10.1 million in cigarettes, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The complaint from MFU mentions several members who have been impacted by the tariffs.

One member, John Wicks, a fourth generation farmer from Liberty County, said he was in contractual discussions with a cross-border trading partner for his organic lentils, but was told they could not enter into a contract due to the instability of the trade market before the tariffs were imposed. Specifically, “if American tariffs were going to be implemented, the partner would not take the crops,” harming Wicks financially, according to court filings 

“Our Canadian partners either won’t buy our crops or are offering significantly lower prices than our partners in the United States. Our partners in the United States know that our Canadian partners are doing this and are capitalizing on it by offering lower prices, so we’re getting squeezed,” Wicks wrote in a declaration of support for MFU’s filing. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, District Court Judge Dana Christensen had not issued a ruling on whether he would allow Montana Farmers Union to intervene. A hearing for the preliminary injunction will be held next Thursday at the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls. Attorneys for the federal government have filed a motion to move the case to the Court of International Trade in New York, arguing the District Court doesn’t have jurisdiction over tariffs, but attorneys for the plaintiffs responded that case can be rightfully heard at the District Court as the lawsuit is over the constitutionality of executive orders.

“Farmers and ranchers have invested decades in developing reliable markets for our products,” Schweitzer said in the press release. “Overnight, these random tariffs have destroyed markets that will take decades to rebuild. This is why the authority to impose tariffs resides in Congress because it provides a forum for public debate and input and ensures the benefit outweighs the harm.”