Lawmakers on Capitol Hill sounded off after President Trump followed through with his threats and slapped tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on Tuesday launching a full scale trade war with the U.S. biggest trade partners.
The global markets took a massive downturn leading up to the tariffs kicking in at midnight and continued to take a slide Tuesday as Canada and China announced retaliatory tariffs. Mexico will respond on Sunday.
The Trump administration imposed 25 percent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico. It also doubled tariffs on China to 20 percent.
Lawmakers on Tuesday reacted with alarm as the trade war is expected to drive up prices on American consumers as the markets also plunged.
‘Instead of improving the lives of or lowering prices for Americans, we are seeing policies of the Trump Administration do exactly the opposite,’ said Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on the Senate floor.
The top ranking Democrat warned the tariffs will ‘will hurt American consumers and supply chains and undermine American manufacturing.’
The office of Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.), who is the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, released a memo blasting the president for ‘waging economic terrorism against American families.’
‘He has effectively enacted a new tax on American businesses and families for products imported from Canada and Mexico, which will be felt at the grocery store, at the gas pump, and when buying a home,’ said Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).
‘A 25% across-the-board tariff on Canada does nothing to bring American manufacturing home, strengthen U.S. supply chains, or create jobs,’ wrote Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
‘Donald Trump promised to lower prices on “Day 1″, but now families have to worry about higher costs,’ she went on.
But Democrats were not the only ones raising concerns in Washington on Tuesday. Some Republicans warned that the move could drive up prices.
Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told a group of reporters that imposing tariffs has consequences.
‘If I could impose a 50 percent tariff on a country and get away with it, I would,’ he said. ‘But the global nature of our supply chains, how you start and finish products and you go across borders multiple times, those additive costs are potential threats to inflation.’
‘US tariffs inevitably bring Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese tariffs which means higher prices for lumber, steel, aluminum and more expensive homes and cars,’ wrote Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on X.
‘Retaliatory tariffs lead to lowered US farm exports, lowered bourbon exports, and less international shipping. Tariffs are taxes and if you tax trade you’ll get less trade and less prosperity,’ Paul added.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he hopes that the tariffs do not last an ‘extended period of time.’ He said he hoped the tariffs serve as the incentive the president wanted them to be and noted that his state does an ‘enormous amount of trade’ with both Mexico and Canada.