The Senate voted 50 to 46 on Wednesday to eliminate President Trump’s authority to impose steep tariffs on Canada, something he exercised again in recent days by ramping up tariffs on the country by another 10 percent because of a television ad that criticized his policies.
Four Republicans voted with Democrats to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Ky.).
They already did so earlier this year, when the Senate voted April 2 to pass the same measure.
The resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), brought the measure back to the Senate floor this week because the Republican-controlled House has refused to act on it.
Kaine argued on the floor that Trump cannot justify the tariffs on Canada under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and risked “fracturing” the United States’s long-standing friendly relationship with its neighbor to the north.
“I primarily object to the Canada tariffs because I don’t think there’s an emergency that should trigger the use of this statute, but there are many other reasons I object to them and the fracturing of this long-standing powerful relationship is one of them,” he said.
Collins, who represents a state that shares a long border with Canada and who faces a tough reelection next year, has repeatedly warned that the tariffs would hurt Maine’s economy.
“The Maine economy is integrated with Canada, our most important trading partner,” she said in April.
“From home heating oil, gasoline, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products, to Maine’s paper mills, forest products businesses, agricultural producers and lobstermen, the tariffs on Canada would be detrimental to many Maine families and our local economies,” she said at the time.
Paul argued that Trump does not have the authority to bypass Congress to “unilaterally” impose tariffs.
“These tariffs hit families, farmers, and small businesses the hardest, and in Kentucky they devastate cornerstone industries like car manufacturing, bourbon, homebuilding and shipping,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority and stop this economic overreach before more jobs and industries are destroyed.”
Trump’s feud with Canada intensified this week after the province of Ontario aired a television ad during the World Series that featured a speech by former President Reagan criticizing tariffs.
Trump called the ad a “serious misrepresentation of the facts” and a “hostile act.”
He announced he would increase tariffs on Canada by 10 percent in retaliation.
Wednesday’s vote came one day after five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a resolution terminating Trump’s emergency authority to impose steep tariffs on Brazil
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