Republican support for US President Donald Trump price on Canada should be tested in the United States Senate This week, the Democrats forcing a vote to cancel the emergency declaration underlying the radical samples.
The vote will come when Trump pushes his so-called “Liberation Day” of reciprocal prices on foreign products that should start on Wednesday, despite some Republicans Recently expressed discomfort with the president’s trade policies that have created unrest in the financial markets.
Even if the resolution of the Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginie offered what could be a potential ramp for prices taken from Canadian imports, republican leaders were trying to keep senators online by focusing on the fentanyl that enters the United States during its northern border. It was still another example of the way Trump reorients the world economy not only, but the reversal of his party’s long-standing support for ideas like free trade.
“Prices are a tax, they are a tax on everyday people,” Kaine told journalists outside the Senate on Tuesday, where he said that the Republicans were “embarrassed” by Trump’s attacks on Canada, including threats to make it the 51st American state.
“Republicans are not yet willing to resist the president,” he said. “They said they were concerned about the prices – okay, very well, you are worried. Now we give you a vote. You can stop them if you wish.
“We ask everyone to have a backbone.”
The Senate was to resolution on Tuesday, but A marathon speech by the Democratic Senator Cory Booker Against Trump administration policies – including prices – pushed the vote on Wednesday.
Kaine’s resolution would end the emergency declaration that Trump signed in February, which allowed him to use national security allegations to implement prices in Canada. Trump quoted an alleged inability to stop the flow of illegal drugs in the United States as a reason.
Kaine said that he knew three Republicans, including Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky and Senator Susan Collins from Maine, who are ready to support the resolution. At least four Republicans should vote with the 45 Democratic senators and two independents for the measure to pass.
Collins told the Associated Press on Tuesday that she was still examining the measure, but added that she supported her “intention” because “Canadian prices are disastrous for the state of Maine”.
“Canada is our friends and our ally, and it’s not China we are talking about. It is not a contradictory nation. It is our biggest trading partner, and it makes no sense, ”she added.
If the Senate adopts the resolution, it should always be taken over by the Chamber under Republican control, which would not target its own vote on the issue.
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This room New language recently approved This would avoid having to vote if a member of the room brought a similar resolution to try to end the emergency declaration. The language, nestled in a continuous budgetary resolution which prevented a closure of the government last month, essentially declared the rest of the calendar year as a long day – which means that a vote would not have to be held before 2026.
A small fraction of the fentanyl that enters the United States between Canada. Customs and the protection of American borders seized Just under 20 kilograms of fentanyl on the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, the authorities have entered approximately half a Kilogram, according to federal data. Meanwhile, on the southern border, the authorities seized more than 9,500 kilograms last year.
The Trump administration reacted to these number of crises lower on the northern border by pointing out deck rates by overdose linked to fentanyl in the United States
Kaine warned that the prices on Canadian goods would wave in the economy, which makes him more expensive to build military houses and ships.
“They will tax grocery products and food products, they will tax construction supplies at a time when the prices of houses are already too high, they will tax fertilizers to our farmers,” he said. “They will tax our national security industry.
“The urgency of fentanyl comes from Mexico and China. It is not from Canada. “
The annual threat evaluation report of the United States community, Released last week, Does not mention Canada in its section on illicit drugs and fentanyl.
However, Trump said that the amount of fentany from Canada is “massive” and is committed to pursuing prices on Wednesday.
“We are progressing to put an end to this terrible fentanyl crisis, but the Republicans in the Senate must vote to maintain the national emergency in place, so that we can finish the work and put an end to the scourge,” Trump said on social networks on Tuesday.
Canadian officials have sought to demonstrate a more severe border security position, including the appointment of a fentanyl tsar and the increase in patrols and drug screening, but that did not convince Trump to drop the prices.
The Republican leaders of the Senate reported that they are not exactly prices fans, but argued that Trump uses them as a negotiation tool.
“I think we are all impatient to see – and we will wait to see – what the president really comes out in terms of pricing policy tomorrow, but I do not think that this should change the vote of people,” journalists of the majority of the South Senate, a republican from the south, said on Tuesday.
He added that the emergency declaration had been made to “cope with the fentanyl flow”.
Trump first implemented the prices related to fentanyl in Canada and Mexico on March 4, but a few days later, he ordered a one-month break from the articles-mainly automotive parts-which are negotiated under the North American free trade rules in the Agreement of States-E-Mexicans of Canada.
This break expires on Wednesday, which is also when Trump plans to announce a so -called “reciprocal” pricing policy which corresponds to the samples and taxes billed by all foreign commerce.
A 25% price on personal vehicles and automotive parts made abroad should also take effect on Thursday, which will amount to a 25% function on foreign steel and aluminum.
A White House official confirmed on Monday that no decision had been made on the question of whether Trump would restore the rates related to fentanyl in Canada and Mexico. Asked on Tuesday on the functions, the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, criticized for the announcement of the Trump Wednesday rate and refused to preview specific actions.
While Trump’s relatives of Trump in the Senate were held firmly by the idea of redoing the American economy through prices, others began to openly express their dissatisfaction with the commercial wars that could disturb industries and increase prices on cars, grocery, housing and other goods.
“I keep closely all these prices because the first people who are injured in a trade war are your farmers and breeders,” said senator Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana.
Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said that he would prefer to see the United States and his business partners to move to withdraw all prices on each other, but he conceded that Trump’s pricing threats had injected uncertainty into the global markets.
“We are in unexplored waters,” Kennedy told journalists. “No one knows what the impact of these prices will be.”
Mark Jones, professor of political science at Rice University in Houston, Texas, told Global News that Trump still took advantage of a “honeymoon period” with strong approval notes among the Republicans who will make it difficult for party members to break with his program.
“However, you will begin to see a large number of republican senators, legislators and other elites starting to evolve against the president if we see negative economic consequences of the prices, which are almost certain if they come into force as they are proposed,” he said.
“The more its approval rate (drop) is more and more, the more you will see the Republicans start to defection the president.”
– with Global Cecchini Reggie Files and the Associated Press