U.S. Senator Susan Collins speaks to reporters outside the Senate chambers, in Washington, on March 13.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
A growing bipartisan cohort of U.S. senators is poised to challenge the White House’s justification for imposing tariffs on Canadian goods, in what could be the most significant Republican rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term.
Senators are expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution seeking to terminate the national emergency the White House declared over illicit fentanyl flowing from Canada into the United States.
Mr. Trump declared the emergency in order to unlock special executive powers that allowed him to bypass Congress, which normally has the power to regulate foreign commerce and impose tariffs.
If all 47 Democrats vote for the resolution, they still need four Republican votes in order to pass the measure through the Senate. That has made the resolution a key test for the willingness of members of that party to stand against Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs, a central pillar of the President’s bid to remake the American economy that will, economists warn, raise prices on consumer goods and scramble supply chains.
The facts on fentanyl and the northern border
On Tuesday, the office of Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, confirmed to The Globe and Mail that she would support the resolution, which was introduced by Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the 2016 Democratic nominee for vice-president.
Speaking with reporters in Washington on Monday, Ms. Collins cited several examples of how deeply integrated Maine’s economy is with Canada’s and expressed skepticism about the White House’s reports of fentanyl flows across the northern border. “Canada is not the problem,” she said.
Mr. Trump, however, has sought to keep the Democratic resolution from succeeding. On Tuesday, he posted to social media a demand that Republicans “MUST vote to keep the National Emergency in place, so we can finish the job, and end the scourge.” The President cited progress in stymying the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., but called for his party to avoid what he suggested would amount to a show of weakness.
“Don’t let the Democrats have a Victory,” Mr. Trump wrote. “It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, far more importantly, for the United States.”
Tariff cheat sheet: What’s in effect, what’s on pause and what’s been threatened?
The Americans who are buying Canadian to oppose Trump’s trade war
On Tuesday, a group of Democratic senators said they held out hope that enough Republicans will offer support.
“We’re asking for four Republican senators to actually go on record with what they’ve all said privately. They’re aghast at the tariffs. They’re aghast at the economic turmoil,” said Senator Mark Warner, whose own grandparents were Canadian.
Mr. Warner, who spoke on Monday night with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, questioned how it is possible that Canada, one of the closest allies to the U.S. next to Britain, “is being turned into an enemy.”
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who co-sponsored the resolution, said it “really sets a line in the sand. And it says you cannot abuse your emergency powers to start an unjustified trade war. You cannot abuse your emergency powers as President of the United States to hurt the relationship – one of the finest relationships in the world – the relationship between the United States of America and Canada.”
The resolution already has the declared support of at least one other Republican – Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who just last week added his name to the list of co-sponsors. Mr. Paul has been outspoken about the need to rein in emergency powers and is a staunch supporter of free markets. Ahead of the vote, Politico reported that Republican senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska would support the resolution, and that Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa was undecided.
If the resolution passes the Senate, it’s not guaranteed to go before the House of Representatives because of a vote in March that effectively blocked a challenge to Mr. Trump’s tariffs in that chamber. In addition, the President has veto power, though Congress could override a veto with a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber.
It’s also not clear how meaningful some Republican support for the resolution will prove. Maine, for example, is uniquely close to Canada, and Ms. Collins has built a strong personal brand in the state. But her vote to preserve free trade with Canada does not constitute a wider rejection of Mr. Trump’s priorities, said Garrett Mason, a Maine Republican who is a former state Senate majority leader.
“I don’t think it’s a beginning of some broad-based opposition,” he said.
Still, Mr. Kaine has said the vote is significant because it will force his fellow senators to make clear to the White House – and to Americans – where they stand.
He told The Globe in an interview last week that the case for tariffs on Canadian goods is “specious,” noting that only a tiny fraction of the illicit fentanyl seized in the United States comes from Canada.
“I’m challenging the President’s assertion that there’s a Canadian fentanyl problem because we should be truthful,” said the Virginia senator, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate almost a decade ago. “Canada is not an adversary, it’s an ally. And tariffs are going to hurt Virginians and Americans badly.”
New York State alone stands to lose more than 200,000 jobs from the Trump tariffs, said Senator Chuck Schumer. In the city of Plattsburgh, one in five companies is Canadian-owned or Canadian-affiliated, and the full imposition of tariffs promised by Mr. Trump would drive Plattsburgh “into deep recession,” he said.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday defended Mr. Trump’s actions, saying fentanyl “certainly caused a national security crisis here in the United States. Fentanyl continues to be the number one killer of young people in this country.”
Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the White House has repeatedly asserted that 43 pounds of fentanyl were intercepted at the northern border last fiscal year, marking a “massive 2,050-per-cent increase” over the previous year. A Globe investigation published in February, however, found that the seizure figures are misleading – that authorities traced at least a third of the 43-pound tally to Mexico.
“There is absolutely a fentanyl crisis in America, but judging by The Globe and Mail’s reporting, Canada is not a significant source of fentanyl,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a co-sponsor of the Senate resolution, said in an e-mailed statement. The Delaware senator noted that Canada is his state’s top trading partner and that he has received “high call volumes” from constituents who oppose the tariffs.
Mr. Kaine noted that the U.S. intelligence community’s annual threat assessment, which was released last week, doesn’t even mention Canada.
“They’re lying to create a fake emergency,” he said.
In his Feb. 1 executive order, Mr. Trump said the flow of illicit drugs from Canada constituted an “unusual and extraordinary threat” requiring expanded executive authority to impose tariffs.
Mr. Kaine said he takes particular issue with the targeting of Canada under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 statute that evolved from a law dating back to the First World War.
“The IEEPA law was designed to be used against enemies – dictators, hostile regimes, cartels,” Mr. Kaine said. “I strongly object to the notion that we should use IEEPA powers against friends.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said U.S. Senator Mark Warren's wife's parents were Canadian. In fact, Mr. Warren's grandparents were Canadian. This version has been updated.