Senate Dems and Sen. Paul Seek to End Reciprocal Tariffs; Crapo Says Give Trump Time
Ahead of a late afternoon vote to end the trade deficit emergency that the president used to impose 10% tariffs on all countries other than Canada and Mexico, and used to impose 125% tariffs on Chinese imports, resolution co-sponsor Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said all Democrats will be voting in favor of "rolling back Donald Trump's ability to use an emergency declaration to play 'Red Light, Green Light' with tariffs and wreck our economy. The question is, how many Republicans will join us?"
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Warren, speaking to International Trade Today in a hallway interview at the Capitol, said, "They all understand the economic consequences of what Donald Trump is doing. The question is whether they have the courage to stand up and vote for their constituents, or if they're just here, once again, to bend a knee to Donald Trump."
She added, "We have the power today to roll that [damage] back, put some curbs on Donald Trump and demonstrate to the world that the United States can be a reliable trading partner, and demonstrate domestically that the United States is a good place to invest, so that there's more manufacturing and better jobs here in our country."
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, includes language that gives both chambers the ability to rescind emergencies declared by the executive. A Senate majority has already voted to end the IEEPA emergency based on Canadian migration and drug smuggling, which underlies the 25% tariff on most non-USMCA-qualifying goods from Canada. But the House has blocked a vote, and the Senate vote was not a veto-proof majority.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said that a vote to end the emergency would send a different message -- that trading partners can continue to discriminate against American exporters, and that Congress is not serious about addressing global imbalances. Crapo pointed to India's decision to end its digital services tax as proof that the reciprocal tariff gambit is already working.
Crapo said on the floor of the Senate that he knows many senators have heard from "constituents concerned about the economic impact of the tariffs. All of us are watching closely."
Crapo said the president's decision to pause the full reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, excepting China, was prudent, because it mitigated the impact on Americans, and discouraged retaliation. He cited the Treasury Secretary's comments that the U.S. is speaking with 17 major trading partners about lowering barriers to U.S. exports.
"We should not undermine the negotiations by the president at this juncture," he argued. "The president is a good negotiator, he deserves more time and our support."
In addition to Warren, Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Peter Welch, D-Vt., Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sponsored the resolution; the only Republican sponsor is Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Paul, on the floor of the Senate, argued that this use of IEEPA would have shocked the founders of the nation, and called one man hiking tariffs on imports around the globe "the antithesis of Constitutional government."
He said that the founders wouldn't have been surprised that a president would try to increase his power, but they wouldn't have expected "the House of Representatives to become so craven as to refuse to even allow a vote on ending the emergency. The House, in its haste to give away its power to tax, actually passed a rule to [evade] a mandatory vote to end the emergencies.
"The rule says that days no longer exist. The house has rules that days are not days. Does that sound absurd? It is cowardice at its best, and it is dishonest because a rule of the House is preventing a law from being obeyed."
He added: "People, particularly on my side, are looking away and saying: 'Oh whatever, let's let the president do whatever.'" He asked Republicans to vote with him to end the emergency.
Paul also criticized the argument that too many imports are bad for the U.S. worker. Trade is good, he said -- and he said that's not an opinion, the data support it. He said that people say the U.S. middle class has gotten smaller, and it has, slightly -- but only because there are now more households in the upper class.
"Trade is simply capitalism. Trade only occurs because you want a product more than you want your money," he said.
"These tariffs will make us poorer. I stand against this emergency, I stand against these tariffs, and I stand against shredding the Constitution."