Meeks: Brazil, India Tariffs Based on Trump's Personal Pique
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who has led the charge to terminate the underlying emergencies for the president's tariffs, said he doesn't know if Republicans will change course and allow a vote on his latest resolution, which would end the 40% tariffs on about 39% of Brazilian imports.
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Earlier this year, Republicans voted in the House to say that there will be no more calendar days in the rest of this session of Congress, through the end of 2025, in a procedural gambit directly blocking all such resolutions.
Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, any member of Congress can demand a vote to terminate the declared emergency, and that demand must be honored first, with action in committee within 15 calendar days, and then, with a vote in the House or Senate within three calendar days unless a majority votes to table the measure.
Democrats, when they controlled the House, also blocked resolutions to end emergencies, in those cases in 2021, to end the COVID-19 national emergency.
"A number of my Republican colleagues really believe that some of these tariffs are not the right thing to do to our friends and to our allies," Meeks said. He acknowledged that there may not be enough support to overcome a White House veto, but said, "Every member of Congress should have a record on how [they vote]," he said, so they can be accountable to their constituencies.
"We should make sure that that happens, irrespective of the Democratic president or Republican president," he said. "It's the principle of the matter."
He said once Congress gives away its responsibility to make tax decisions to the executive, "he will never give it back. And so, you know, people will be trying to go around Congress at all times.
"Congress should determine whether or not a tariff should happen. It should be the decision of the Congress, not the decision of the executive. The executive only comes in if there's an emergency, but it should be a real emergency, not a fake emergency or made-up, right?"
Meeks is particularly critical of this latest use of IEEPA, to punish Brazil for prosecuting a coup attempt by the former president, who, like Donald Trump, lost an election but, authorities say, encouraged his supporters to riot in order to keep him in power. The IEEPA emergency also points to decisions in Brazil to keep inflammatory social media posts off the Internet, even briefly blocking X when the company did not agree to moderate its platform or provide an in-country representative who could be accountable.
"Tariffs should not be determined based upon a personal issue that the president of the United States has with the country. That's exactly what Brazil is. It's a personal issue with Brazil because he's trying to protect a friend. Just as [with] the perpetrators of January 6, he's letting them loose. He's got a friend [in the deposed Brazilian president, Jair Bolsanaro], he wants to let them loose."
Meeks added, "He's holding something against India, because they won't nominate him" to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, referring to an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, ostensibly over Indian purchases of Russian oil. No other customers have been hit with secondary tariffs. "So all these personal things should not be the determining factor on tariffs, and that's what this president is doing, this quid pro quo type of thing. That's not the way to run a government. That's not the way the office of the president has ever been. That's why Congress is standing up."