US Senate votes against Canada tariffs - Several Republicans vote with Democrats

US Senate votes against Canada tariffs - Several Republicans vote with Democrats AFP • 3 hours • 2 minutes read Several Republican US senators have refused to support President Trump's tariff policy against Canada. The Senate passed a resolution against the tariffs with the votes of the Democrats and four Republicans. Several Republican US senators have refused to support President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff policy against Canada. The Senate in Washington passed a resolution against the 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports on Wednesday with the votes of the opposition Democrats and four Republicans. The resolution was passed by a vote of 51 to 48. Trump's Republicans hold a majority of 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate. The Senate vote, however, is only symbolic. There is virtually no chance that the resolution will become law. In Washington, House Republican Leader Mike Johnson is expected to prevent a vote on the text in that chamber. Johnson is a loyal Trump ally. The Senate vote took place shortly after Trump announced new tariffs on trading partners around the world. However, Canada and Mexico are not on the list of countries affected by these tariffs. Both neighboring countries are linked to the United States through a free trade agreement. Nevertheless, at the beginning of February, Trump ordered a blanket tariff of 25 percent on imports from the two neighboring countries. He justified the punitive tariffs by accusing both countries of not doing enough to combat the smuggling of the drug fentanyl and irregular immigration to the United States. In the weeks that followed, there was a back and forth regarding these tariffs, but the 25 percent import surcharge has been in place on many Canadian products since March. Canada responded with counter-tariffs, and US products are also widely boycotted there. New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced he will "fight" the US tariffs. Relations between the US and Canada have also been severely strained by Trump's repeated announcement that he wants to incorporate his northern neighbor into the United States as the 51st state. Trump described the current Senate vote against his tariffs on Canada as a "machination" of the Democrats. The House of Representatives will "never" approve the text, and "I (...) will never sign it," the president wrote on his online service Truth Social. The Senate's vote against the Canada tariffs was an unusual event: In the nearly two and a half months of Trump's second term, Republicans, who hold narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress, have followed the president's line. Among the four Republican dissenters who voted alongside the Democrats for the resolution is Mitch McConnell, the former longtime leader of the House Republican Party. His relationship with Trump has been strained for years and deteriorated particularly after the storming of the Capitol in Washington—the seat of Congress—by fanatical Trump supporters in January 2021.