FROM THE HILL: The Senate on Wednesday evening voted to repeal President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Canada, after the upper chamber passed a similar resolution on Brazil the day prior.
A handful of Senate Republicans voted with Democrats on Wednesday’s symbolic bill, which passed 50-46. Trump’s trade spat with Canada escalated earlier this week after he hiked tariffs by an additional 10 percent over an ad featuring former President Reagan.
The measures targeting Canadian and Brazilian tariffs are unlikely to be brought to the House floor for a vote.
On Tuesday, Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted with 47 members of the Democratic caucus to pass the resolution, sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) The resolution, which passed 52 to 48, terminates Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports,
Paul called the tariff a tax on U.S. consumers, and that the Constitution requires that taxes to “originate in the House” of Representatives.
“Yet, these taxes are originating with the White House,” he said.
McConnell, in a statement, “New trade barriers imposed this year have made it harder to sustain the supply chains that let thousands of Kentuckians build cars and appliances in the Commonwealth. Retaliatory tariffs on American products have turned agricultural income upside down for many of Kentucky’s nearly 70,000 family farms.”
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