Senate Democrats to force votes on Trump tariffs on Canada, Brazil

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) says he will force Republicans to vote on resolutions to revoke President Trump’s authority to invoke reciprocal tariffs on Canada and Brazil, two of the nation’s largest trading partners, amid rising prices and general public discontent over the economy.

Kaine and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will introduce two resolutions that would repeal tariffs against Canada and Brazil, according to the Associated Press.

The two lawmakers joined Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), in April in introducing a resolution to terminate Trump’s authority to impose tariffs under the National Emergencies Act.

The Senate passed the resolution that month with the support of four Republicans: Paul, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The House didn’t take action on the measure.

Collins noted at the time of her vote that Maine’s economy is entwined with Canada’s and that her home state received 95 percent of its home heating oil from Canada and that Maine farmers import 90 percent of the potash they use as fertilizer from Canada.

Kaine and his allies plan to force a vote on the resolution again and on a second measure to repeal Trump’s 50 percent tariffs against Brazil, which he imposed while citing the prosecution of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.

Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.

The tariffs of Brazil have caused a surge in coffee prices, which rose by more than 20 percent over the past year.  

Some critics of Trump’s tariffs against Brazil have pointed out that the United States ran a $6.8 billion trade goods surplus with the country in 2024.