The US Senate has passed a bill to block new tariffs on Canadian goods hours after presidents announce a raft of duties on foreign goods.
According to Reuters, the US Senate on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, passed legislation to terminate President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on Canadian goods.
The Senate voted 51-48 to approve the bill that will now be sent to the House of Representatives, where it will most likely not become a law, but the most interesting thing that happened was that four Republican senators joined forces with the Democrats to pass the bill.
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The bill required at least four Republican votes to get approved in a chamber where Trump's party holds a 53-47 majority. Despite the overnight social media post of the president in which he urged his party members to reject the bill, Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul ignored the pressure and voted in favour.
McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, in a statement after the vote, said, “As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who initiated the resolution, told a news conference, “This is not about fentanyl. It’s about tariffs. It’s about a national sales tax on American families.”
The Democratic-presented bill aimed to terminate a national emergency declared by Trump two days after taking office on January 22, 2025, due to illegal imports of the deadly fentanyl drug from Mexico, Canada and China. He used it to put high taxes on goods from Canada.
Related: Trump slaps 50% tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminium after Ontario's warning
