US Senate votes to quash Trump’s global tariffs

The US Senate rebuked President Donald Trump’s trade policy for the third time in as many days, voting 51-47 on Thursday to eliminate the national emergency underpinning Trump’s global tariffs announced in April.

The resolution followed two others earlier this week — to eliminate duties on goods from Canada and Brazil, respectively — that passed with bipartisan support, indicating discomfort among lawmakers with the president’s aggressive use of tariffs to reshape US trade relationships.

However, the votes are symbolic: The House has pre-emptively blocked through March any challenges to the president’s tariff policy.

“American families are being squeezed by prices going up and up and up,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), the sponsor of the resolution, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “Today it’s possible for the Senate to focus on bringing families relief to their wallets. Congress can vote to repeal Donald Trump’s trade taxes and stop taking money out of Americans’ pockets.”

Four Republicans who have consistently raised concerns with the administration’s trade policy again voted with all of the chamber’s Democrats to end the national emergency Trump declared to implement a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries.

That bloc consists of Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky).

“Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive,” McConnell said earlier this week in a statement on all three tariff votes. “The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.”

Most Republicans voted against the measure.

“I appreciate that my colleagues, as well as our constituents, may be nervous about what comes next,” said Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who spoke in opposition to the measure Thursday morning. “However, at this juncture, this resolution is counterproductive to helping American families and businesses of all sizes.”

“It’s no secret that, for decades, countries around the globe have raised tariff and nontariff barriers against Americans and against American businesses,” Crapo said. “President Trump is now responding and saying these countries need to … deal with us in fair and free trade. The president’s negotiations are bearing fruit.”

In early April, Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on all countries and additional “reciprocal” tariffs on countries that, he argued, had the largest trade imbalances with the United States. He justified his “Liberation Day” tariffs by declaring an international emergency over the “large and persistent trade deficit” in international trade relationships.

The announcement set off a flurry of negotiations between the administration and other countries to ease the tariffs. It also prompted a court challenge from US businesses, which will soon be considered by the Supreme Court.

The US has collected about $88 billion in tax revenue from the tariffs through August, according to Customs and Border Protection. Tariffs also increase costs for consumers and are expected to increase taxes by more than $1,600 per household annually and shrink the gross domestic product by 0.5 percent over the next decade, according to estimates by the Tax Foundation.–Washington Post