Support, silence and confusion: Republicans respond to Trump’s trade war
globalnews.caU.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented move to pull America’s closest neighbours into a trade war has left some Republican lawmakers precariously navigating how to support the leader’s tariff agenda while their local economies brace for impact.
Many Republicans — caught between risking the president’s ire and facing backlash from constituents concerned about rising costs — remained quiet about the damaging duties, set to be deployed Tuesday. Other came out loudly in support.
“Canada needs to come to the table,” Kristi Noem, the former governor of South Dakota and the new head of the Department of Homeland Security, told NBC News on Sunday.
“They need to work with us to make sure that not only can we be good neighbours, but that we can help each other’s economies by getting in line.”
Trump signed executive orders Saturday to hit imports from Canada and Mexico with damaging duties amounting to 10 per cent on Canadian energy and 25 per cent on everything else.
Canada and Mexico quickly announced their intention to push back — despite the fact that the order includes a retaliation clause that says if the countries respond with duties on American products, the levies could be increased.
The president has linked the tariffs to what he calls the illegal flow of people and fentanyl across the border. U.S Customs and Border Protection statistics show less than one per cent of all fentanyl seized in the U.S. comes from the northern border.
Trump expanded an earlier emergency declaration at the southern border to the north and issued the tariffs through the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA). No president has used IEEPA for tariffs and it remains to be seen if the order will survive legal challenges.
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