President Donald Trump has been wielding emergency powers in a novel way to impose tariffs on China and threaten Canada and Mexico with future duties – and legal challenges could follow. But, for now, Republicans in Congress are happy to give the president wide discretion to use emergency powers as he sees fit.
Last week, Trump threatened new 25% duties on imports from Canada and Mexico and actually implemented an additional 10% duty on imports from China, using powers granted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The act, which gives the president powers to regulate international commerce in the event of a national emergency, has never been used to impose tariffs – although Richard Nixon used a precursor to impose an across-the-board duty in the early 1970s.
The Constitution puts trade policy under Congress’ purview, but over the years, Congress has delegated many of these authorities to the president.
In Trump’s first term, Republicans like Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Pat Toomey, R-Penn., tried to exert congressional oversight over U.S. trade policy powers when they believed the president had overreached on tariffs. While neither senator remains in office, several GOP lawmakers pushed back on Trump’s announced tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Both Canada and Mexico secured a temporary tariff reprieve, but the president has insisted that the 25% duties could go into effect absent a lasting “deal” before March 1.
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In a recent interview with “60 Minutes,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said tariffs on Canada and Mexico would raise costs for U.S. consumers. While Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, warned they could cause significant energy price hikes in her home state. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley also called on Trump to exempt fertilizer imports from any future Canadian tariff.
The pushback has prompted some Democrats to examine whether there is a way to work with Republicans to increase Congress’ trade policy oversight and claw back some executive powers.
“I'm raising it in a lot of my meetings,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J, told Agri-Pulse.
After a rrecent hearing in which farmers laid out many of the economic issues affecting rural America, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told Agri-Pulse he could see space for bipartisan efforts to rein in executive tariff powers.
“My Republican colleagues were raising some of the same questions on behalf of their farmers that I was,” Welch said. “So, I do see a shared concern about doing no harm to our farm community.”
Kim acknowledged, however, that much would depend on Republicans’ willingness to stand up to the president.
“So far, we haven't seen a whole lot of appetite on that,” he added.
Even Republicans who oppose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trade partners told Agri-Pulse they are willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt when it comes to using emergency powers to impose tariffs.
“I'm going to give Trump some discretion on using that in an effective way,” Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., said. “I don't like the ramifications on inflation and how it affects agriculture, but I think we're going to give him some discretion.”
Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz, lamented that Congress had given away its trade policy authorities when it passed IEEPA in 1977.
“That's the sin,” Schweikert said. “That’s a previous Congress giving away its own power.”
But Schweikert doubted whether a veto-proof majority in Congress could be assembled to claw back those powers now.
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., expressed concern ahead of Trump’s inauguration over the potential impact of tit-for-tat tariff escalations on U.S. farmers. At a recent event hosted by Politico, Smith also doubted that reversing some of the delegated trade powers would garner sufficient support from his colleagues.
“I don't expect Congress to ultimately have the votes to just grab everything back,” Smith said.
Schweikert, Smith and LaHood sit on the Ways and Means Committee, which has oversight of U.S. trade policy and would have to approve any trade legislation. Notably, Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., issued a statement in support of Trump’s tariff plans, including those on Canada and Mexico, arguing they would “send a powerful message that the United States will no longer stand by as other nations fail to halt the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants into our country.”
Some Democrats, however, see the project of retrieving some of those executive powers as a longer-term project. Ways and Means members Don Beyer of Virginia, and Suzan DelBene of Washington, have a bill that would specifically exclude the ability to increase tariffs from IEEPA powers.
Beyer told Agri-Pulse he doesn’t expect the effort to garner any Republican support in the short term. But that could eventually change, he suggested.
For their bill to pass, Beyer said, “the Zeitgeist is going to have to change.”
But, Beyer added, Trump is “doing everything he can to change it.”
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