Is this the proper way for the President to exercise authority to deal with this issue? Or, is there another way that the President can retaliate against Mexico with trigger a WTO dispute action?

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This is not the appropriate way for the US President to deal with the issue. The problem is,

first, that he is acting on his own without having done any research into the issue.

Secondly, another issue is that the President is trying to implement tariffs without any basis

for doing so other than retaliating against Mexico and without any other support. Yes, the

president has gained more authority as a result of the trade act of 1934, but not enough to

act in this manner.

The rule I believe is being applied is the Technical Barriers to Trade. Mexico is

implementing regulation Obama sees as “unnecessary” and therefore will likely use the

USTR to try and trigger a hearing under provision 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 as a

hindrance to US trade. The best way to retaliate with Mexico is first, to go through the

WTO dispute resolution mechanisms that are in place. If this doesn’t work, then the

President can go through provision 301, but only this will enable the issue to become

resolved, not the president going and taking matters into his own hands by placing a tariff

on all plastic items, as this in itself is discrimination against Mexican plastic.