(Washington, DC) — Some Republican Senators joined with Democrats in a vote to rescind tariffs on Canada. On Wednesday evening, the Senate voted 51-48 in favor of a resolution that would block President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products.
Four Republicans supported the Democratic-led measure: Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The resolution authored by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine is expected to stall in the House. Kaine told reporters reciprocal tariffs and renewed duties on USMCA-covered goods would boomerang as Canada hits back.
“They’ll tax groceries and food products,” said Senator Kaine. “They’ll tax building supplies at a time when home prices are too high, already. They will tax fertilizer for our farmers. About 80 percent of the potash that is used for fertilizer by our farmers comes from Canada.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, argues that tariffs should be used sparingly and should be targeted, not across the board as with Canada. “As Ranking Member on the Agriculture Committee, I see what this will do to us, how it adds to the cost of planting—an acre of corn, an acre of soybeans…because, as Tim mentioned, the fertilizer issues, all of the trade and supply chains we have, back and forth,” according to Senator Klobuchar.
U.S. producers exported close to 30 billion dollars in raw and processed farm goods to Canada in 2023. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) defends President Trump’s emergency powers to impose tariffs that Democrats want to limit. “The president declared the emergency to deal with the issue of fentanyl and the flow of fentanyl into this country, not only from our southern border but also from our northern border,” according to Senator Thune. “That’s what the emergency declaration is about. And, what this would do is undo that.”
Earlier on Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a long list of global reciprocal tariffs that cover a wide-range of products from numerous countries that hold trade surpluses with the United States along with a baseline 10% tariff for all imports.
Matt Kaye, Berns Bureau Washington contributed Congressional quotes to this report courtesy of NAFB News Service
