Four Senate Republicans vote with Democrats in effort to end Trump tariffs on Canada
Commercial trucks cross into Canada from the US at the Blue Water Bridge border crossing in Sarnia
By Morgan Rimmer, CNN
(CNN) — The Senate passed a resolution aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, with four Republicans joining Democrats to rebuke the administration’s trade policies a day after they voted to terminate tariffs on Brazil.
Sens. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and former Republican Leader Mitch McConnell crossed the aisle to side with Democrats in the 50 to 46 vote. They all previously voted to block the Canada tariffs in April.
The resolution aims to end the tariffs by terminating an emergency declaration from the president.
The move, however, amounts to a symbolic rebuke of the president’s recent actions as it isn’t expected to be taken up by the House. Earlier this year, House Republicans moved to block members from being able to force a vote on the president’s tariffs in the near future.
Paul was a co-sponsor of the resolution and McConnell pledged on Tuesday that he would vote for each of the resolutions taking aim at Trump’s tariffs that Democrats plan to bring to the floor this week. There is one more vote expected on Thursday aimed at ending Trump’s so-called “liberation day” tariffs.
Sen. Tim Kaine, one of the Democratic co-sponsors of the Canada tariff resolution, said Tuesday that the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was not appropriate. The administration initially argued that fentanyl flowing from Canada into the US was the inciting emergency, and the tariffs were increased last week after the Ontario Premier ran an anti-tariff advertisement invoking quotes from former President Ronald Reagan.
“It is ridiculous to say that fentanyl is an emergency with respect to Canada, and it’s a pretext that’s just used being used to pour more and more tariffs onto Canada,” said Kaine. “And why don’t we pour gasoline on the fire? If they run an ad we don’t like, we’ll increase the tariffs by 10%.”
Kaine did acknowledge that this resolution likely won’t advance beyond the Senate, but he insisted it can still send a message to Trump.
“I did learn … in the first Trump term that the president is responsive to things like this. When he sees Republicans starting to vote against his policies, even in small numbers, that makes an impression on him and can often cause him to alter his behavior,” Kaine told reporters.
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