U.S. Senate Votes to Appeal Trump’s Tariffs on Canada

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate voted 50-46 to pass bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rand Paul (R-KY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Mark R. Warner (D-VA), as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to challenge President Donald Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) tariffs on Canada. 

The vote came shortly after newly released inflation data showed that consumer prices rose in September at their fastest pace in eight months, and after the Senate voted to pass a separate resolution led by Kaine, Paul, Schumer, and U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) to challenge President Trump’s IEPPA tariffs on Brazil.

Trump said in late October he wanted to impose another 10 percent tariff hike on imports of Canadian goods because of an anti-tariff television ad aired by the province of Ontario. The television ad used the words of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs.

Trade tensions have flared between the U.S. and Canada since February. In August, the president raised tariffs on the country to 35%, though a large share of goods remain exempt under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. 

The National Emergencies Act states that the U.S. House of Representatives must vote on this legislation within 18 days. The votes are largely symbolic, however. Republican leaders in the House used a legislative maneuver to block votes on tariffs until March.

Specifically, the legislation would terminate the February 1 emergency declaration that President Trump used to launch his trade war with Canada, and would eliminate the tariffs on Canadian imports implemented as a result. President Trump’s order cited the IEEPA, an unprecedented use of IEEPA’s emergency provisions in the law’s nearly half-century history. The IEEPA tariffs are among the largest tax increases on American families in recent history.