Senate Votes to End Reciprocal Tariffs, 51-47
The Senate voted 51-47 to terminate the national emergency based on the trade deficit, the emergency the president used to impose tariffs of between 10% and 39% on nearly every country in the world.
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(India and Brazil face 50% tariffs on top of most-favored nation duties, but not all of those duties are from the trade deficit declaration.) The same four Republicans who voted to end the Canada tariff both in April and this week supported the measure Oct. 30. Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., didn't vote.
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a release ahead of this week's series of votes, "Protectionists in Washington insist that the past several months have vindicated the policy of indiscriminate trade war against both close allies and strategic adversaries."
But he said that's wrong. "Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive."
He said the tariffs have made it harder to build cars and appliances in Kentucky, since they rely on imported parts.
"Retaliatory tariffs on American products have turned agricultural income upside down for many of Kentucky’s nearly 70,000 family farms. Bourbon has been caught in the crossfire from Day One. And consumers are paying higher prices across the board as the true costs of trade barriers fall inevitably on them."
The bare majority is nowhere close to being enough to override a presidential veto -- that would take 67 votes. And House Republicans have blocked a vote in that chamber to terminate any of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act emergencies.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon led the push to roll back the broad tariffs, saying in a release, “From Japan to the European Union, Trump is hellbent on slapping tariffs on our allies to wreck the U.S. economy,” Wyden said. “Americans across our country are shouldering the cost of these tariffs, which are taxes jacking up the price of groceries, electronics, clothes, strollers, and other everyday goods. It’s way past time for Congress to take back its power over trade so that Trump’s disastrous trade war comes to an end once and for all.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has been the sole Republican co-sponsor on all the efforts to roll back the emergencies. After the Canada resolution passed by a similar narrow majority, he tweeted, "I’m once again proud to see the Senate stand up for the Constitution and vote to end an unconstitutional tax on Americans. Tariffs aren’t paid by foreign countries, they’re paid by American families. I hope to see the House follow suit."
Opponents of the IEEPA tariffs will have to wait six months before they can get another chance to rescind them.