Senate rebukes Trump’s tariffs as some Republicans vote to halt taxes on
Canadian imports
[April 03, 2025]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night that
would thwart President Donald Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on
Canada, delivering a rare rebuke to the president just hours after he
unveiled sweeping plans to clamp down on international trade.
The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four
Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trump’s emergency
declaration on fentanyl trafficking that underpins tariffs on Canada.
Trump earlier Wednesday announced orders — his so-called “Liberation
Day” — to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading
partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.
The Senate’s legislation has practically no chance of passing the
Republican-controlled House and being signed by Trump, but it showed the
limits of Republican support for Trump’s vision of remaking the U.S.
economy by restricting free trade. Many economists are warning that the
plan could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already
watching with unease as Trump upends the United States’ relationship
with the rest of the world.
Trump earlier Wednesday singled out the four Republicans — Sens. Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
and Rand Paul of Kentucky — who voted in favor of the resolution.
In a statement following the vote, McConnell, the former Senate
Republican leader, said, “As I have always warned, tariffs are bad
policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.”
To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough
to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and
Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl in its northern border
sector during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have
seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at
the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.
“This is not about fentanyl. It’s about tariffs. It’s about a national
sales tax on American families,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia
Democrat who initiated the resolution, at a news conference Wednesday.
Democrats argued that Trump is using the tariffs to pay for proposed tax
cuts that would benefit the wealthy, but will also make it more
expensive to build homes, buy cars and pay for imported grocery
products. Kaine pointed to aluminum imported from Canada that is used by
businesses ranging from pie makers to shipbuilders.
“Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and
even to the American dream,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said
in a floor speech.
On the heels of election results in Wisconsin and Florida that delivered
early warning signs to Republicans about the popularity of Trump's
agenda, Schumer said that the president is particularly vulnerable when
it comes to the economy.
“Once the American people say, ‘I don’t want to embrace somebody, I
don’t want to vote for somebody, I don’t want to support somebody who
embraces Trump’s policies,’ things are going to change," he told
reporters. “Public sentiment is everything."
At the White House on Wednesday, Trump singled out Canada as a
beneficiary of “unfair” trading practices with the U.S., though his
latest order did not add to tariffs already in place on Canada and
Mexico.
“Why are we doing this? I mean, at what point do we say, ‘You’ve got to
work for yourselves and you’ve got to’? This is why we have the big
deficits," Trump said.
For their part, Republican leaders tried to hold their members in line
not by talking about the impacts of tariffs, but by emphasizing that
Trump was acting to address fentanyl trafficking and border security.
Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso argued in a floor speech that former
President Joe Biden had “also thrown open the northern border. The
criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.”
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, is joined from
left by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Sen.
Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., as they speak to reporters about President
Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign countries, at the Capitol, in
Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
"There are unique threats to the United States at our northern
border," the Wyoming senator said. “President Trump is taking the
bold, decisive, swift action that is necessary to secure that border
as well.”
Republicans lined up on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to
underscore the need to act to halt fentanyl trafficking, including
at the northern border. However, it was not enough to persuade a key
group of Senate Republicans who objected to the tax on Canadian
imports.
In a floor speech Wednesday, Collins said she would support the
resolution and noted, “The fact is the vast majority of fentanyl in
America comes from the southern border.”
Collins said that Canada is already beefing up border security to
address drug trafficking, yet she was concerned about what tariffs
would do to businesses and households in Maine. She pointed to a
paper mill in her home state that pumps paper pulp from Canada.
“A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial
wellbeing of this vital paper mill, which employs more than 500
people in rural, northern Maine. There is not another big employer
in that area that can possibly compensate for the loss of those 510
direct jobs,” Collins said.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports libertarian economic
views, also delivered an impassioned floor speech, arguing that the
president should not be given unilateral authority to impose taxes
on imports.
“Every dollar collected in tariff revenue comes straight out of the
pockets of American consumers,” he said. “Conservatives used to
understand that tariffs are taxes on the American people.
Conservatives used to be uniformly opposed to raising taxes because
we wanted the private marketplace, the private individuals to keep
more of their income.”
While a younger group of Republicans closely aligned with Trump has
spoken out in favor of the president's plans to aggressively reshape
the economy, a sizable portion of the Republican Conference voiced
concerns about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries.
Still, most wanted to give Trump room in hopes that he would
negotiate better trade deals.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant
talks with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state, like
Bobcat, which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. He
voted against the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump's order
would just be a starting point for negotiations to mutually drop
tariffs.
The Republican added: “I’m not overly concerned about it, but
obviously it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of
political anxiety."
Democrats planned to keep pressing into that anxiety. After Trump’s
announcement, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, said on social media he would also force
a similar vote in the House on the tariffs.
“Republicans can’t keep ducking this — it’s time they show whether
they support the economic pain Trump is inflicting on their
constituents,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed reporting.
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