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WASHINGTON – Fifty-one senators, including four Republicans, voted on Wednesday to end President Donald Trump's tariff on Canadian goods in a bipartisan rebuke of the administration's trade policy.
Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Democrats in voting against the president's tariffs on Canada.
It comes just hours after Trump implemented 10% across-the-board tariffs on imports and additional reciprocal tariffs on goods from 60 countries, a significant escalation in the global trade war. The vote marks the first substantive bipartisan pushback to Trump's policies since he took office just over two months ago.
The resolution put forward by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., would end an emergency order Trump declared in February over concerns about fentanyl crossing the northern border with Canada. That order has been used as the basis for 25% tariffs on Canadian goods.
It would need to be approved by the Republican-controlled House and be signed by the president in order to have an effect – so it has almost no chance of actually changing U.S. policy. But the bipartisan statement reflects widespread discomfort, even among some Republicans, with a trade policy that economists say will raise prices for consumers.
Read the rest at the Courier-Journal.
