The Senate approved a resolution blocking President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada on Wednesday evening, dealing a symbolic blow to the president’s trade policy.
Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Democrats in terminating a national emergency declaration justifying the tariffs on Canada. The vote comes after the upper chamber successfully terminated Trump’s 50% tariffs on Brazil on Tuesday evening with five Republicans crossing party lines.
Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis voted in favor of toppling Trump’s Brazil tariffs, but opposed curtailing the president’s authority to levy tariffs on Canada. Both resolutions required a simple majority to pass.
“Massive tariffs on close trading partners such as Brazil and Canada are ill-advised abuses of presidential power that will make Americans poorer,” Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Paul, two co-sponsors of the resolution, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post on Wednesday. “Further, Trump is misusing an unrelated emergency statute to do it. His reckless, unconstitutional actions risk sending our country full steam ahead into economic chaos.”
McConnell also argued that the president’s tariffs have increased prices for consumers and hurt Kentucky’s agriculture industry in a statement announcing his support for the resolution.
The resolution, however, is likely to be quickly shelved by the House of Representatives. House Speaker Mike Johnson is not expected to bring the resolution to a vote on the floor.
The vote follows Trump increasing tariffs on Canadian imports to 35% in response to an Ontario TV ad invoking former President Ronald Reagan to criticize the president’s trade policy. The video spotlights Reagan warning that tariffs “hurt every American worker and consumer” in the long-term.
Vice President JD Vance urged Senate Republicans to unite behind the president’s tariff policies on Tuesday.
“Tariffs give us the ability to put American workers first,” Vance told reporters following a lunch meeting with the Republican conference. ‘They force American industry to reinvest in the United States of America instead of a foreign country. They’re also incredible leverage for the president of the United States in negotiating these trade deals overseas.”
The Senate previously voted to terminate Trump’s tariffs on Canada in April. Paul, McConnell, Murkowski and Collins teamed up with Democrats to block Trump’s national emergency declaration underpinning the tariffs.
A group of Senate Democrats and Paul are also expected to force a vote ending the president’s emergency powers justifying his global baseline tariffs as early as this week.
