Senate votes to stop taxes on Canadian imports in reprimand to Trump

The Senate adopted a resolution on Wednes President Donald Trump The ability to impose tariffs on Canada, giving a rare reprimand to the president just a few hours after revealing great plans to move on international trade.

The resolution of the Senate, adopted with a 51-48 vote with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, will end Trump’s emergency statement on fentanyl traffic underlying Canada. Trump Wednesdays early Announced orders -His name “The Day of Liberation” – In order to impose taxes on import on a lot of international trading partners, although so far Canadian imports have been exempt from new taxes.

Senate legislation has no chance of passing the house controlled by Republican and signed by Trump but it showed the limits of republican support For Trump’s vision of restoring US economy by restricting free trade. Many economists warn that the plan could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already pursuing, while Trump goes beyond the United States relationship with the rest of the world.

Trump Wednesday earlier sang the four Republicans – meaning. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Susan Collins from Maine, Mitch McConnell from Kentucky and Paul in Kentucky – who voted in favor of the resolution.

In a statement following the vote, McConnell, the former Republican leader of the Senate, said: “As we always warned, the rates are bad policies and commercial wars with our partners do the people who work.”

To justify the rates, Trump claimed that Canada does not make enough to stop illegal drugs to enter the northern border. Customs and border protection confiscated 43 kilograms of fentanil in its northern border sector during the fiscal year 2024, and from January, the authorities confiscated less than 1.5 kilograms, according to federal data. Meanwhile, on the southern border, the authorities confiscated over 21,000 kilograms last year.

“It’s not about Fentanil. It’s about rates. It’s a national sales fee for American families,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, who initiated the resolution, at a press conference on Wednesday.

Democrats have claimed that Trump uses the rates to pay for the proposed tax discounts that would benefit from the rich, but will also make it more expensive to build houses, buy cars and pay for imported food. Kaine has indicated the imported aluminum in Canada, which is used by companies ranging from pies to ship manufacturers.

“Today, Donald Trump takes a Sledgehammer to the American economy and even the American dream,” said the Democratic leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, in a floor speech.

On the path of elections results from Wisconsin and Florida who delivered Signs of early warning for Republicans About the popularity of Trump’s agenda, Schumer said the president is particularly vulnerable when it comes to economy.

“Once the American people say,” I do not want to hug someone, I do not want to vote for someone, I do not want to support someone who embraces Trump’s policies, “things will change,” said reporters. “Public feeling is everything.”

On Wednesday, at the White House, Trump highlighted Canada as a beneficiary of “unfair” trading practices, although his last order has not added the tariffs already in Canada and Mexico.

“Why do we do this? I mean, at what time do we say,” You have to work for you and you have to do it “? This is why we have great deficits, “Trump said.

For their part, Republican leaders tried to keep their members in line not talking about the impact of tariffs, but emphasizing that Trump was acting to address fentanyl traffic and border security.

Major Senator Whip, John Barrasso, argued in a floor speech that former president Joe Biden “threw and opened the North border. Criminal cards have observed and took advantage.”

“There are unique threats to the United States on our Northern border,” said Wyoming senator. “President Trump takes the daring, decisive and fast measures, which is necessary to ensure this border.”

The Republicans lined up on the Senate floor on Wednesday after -to emphasize the need to act to stop the fentanyl traffic, including the northern border. However, it was not enough to convince a key group of Republicans from the Senate that opposed the tax on Canadian imports.

In a floor speech on Wednesday, Collins said he will support the resolution and mentioned: “The fact is that the vast majority of the fentanyl in America comes from the south border.”

Collins said Canada is already taking over border security to address drug trafficking, however she was concerned about what the rates for companies and households would do. She pointed to a paper factory in her state of origin pumping the Canada paper pulp.

“A tariff placed on this pulp would endanger the financial well -being of this vital paper factory, which hires over 500 people in the rural area, northern Maine.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports the libertarian economic opinions, also spoke a impaired floor speech, arguing that the president should not be given to the unilateral authority to impose taxes on imports.

“Each dollar collected in tariff revenues comes directly from the pockets of American consumers,” he said. “Conservatives used to understand that tariffs are taxes on the American people. Conservatives were uniforms to increase taxes, because we wanted the private market, private persons to keep their income more.”

While a younger group of Republicans taught Trump, he spoke in favor of the president to aggressively model the economy, a considerable part of the Republican Conference expressed concerns about the tariff impact on farmers and other industries. However, most wanted to give Trump’s Chamber in the hope that it would negotiate better commercial offers.

The North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer said he was in constant discussions with both Canadian officials and companies in his state, such as Bobcat, who makes a significant amount of his sales in Canada. He voted against the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump’s order would only be a starting point for negotiations to give up each other.

The Republican added: “I am not too concerned about it, but obviously, it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety.”

Democrats planned to continue to press that anxiety. According to Trump’s announcement, rep. Gregory Meeks, the best democrat of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said on social networks that he will also force a similar vote in the Chamber on tariffs.

“Republicans cannot continue to do this – it is time to show if they support the economic pain that Trump produces on their components,” he said.