Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Global Tariffs

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in opposition to the resolution. Before I get into my prepared remarks, let me just make it clear. What we are doing here today is following a law, IEEPA, which gave authority to the President of the United States to declare an emergency and gave Congress the authority to reject that declaration of the emergency by a vote in Congress.

The President has declared that emergency under the authority of that law, and this resolution has been brought to reject the declaration of that emergency. That is what we are debating today, and that is what the vote in Congress is about.

I appreciate that many of us in this Chamber have heard from constituents concerned about the economic impact of the tariffs. All of us are watching this issue closely and working with the administration to find ways to minimize its impact on Americans.

We should also be working with the administration to address a shared objective: more opportunities for Americans in foreign markets and an end to discriminatory practices in foreign markets against Americans, against our farmers, and against our businesses.

The President's decision to pause the full reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, other than for China, was a prudent move in that respect. It helped mitigate the impact. It discouraged retaliation but also continued the serious negotiations by our trading partners to address longstanding trading barriers faced by Americans in foreign markets.

I don't believe there is anybody in Congress who would deny that for decades, nations around the globe have put unjustified tariffs on American producers, on American products. We should not undermine these negotiations by the President at this critical juncture. The administration has shared that serious negotiations are proceeding with 18 countries at a minimum now and with more to follow shortly.

In the coming weeks, the U.S. Trade Representative will meet with the Senate advisory group on negotiations and the Finance Committee to discuss these negotiations in detail. I encourage my colleagues to trust the President, at least until they have had the opportunity to hear from his trade team about their efforts.

As the White House recently argued in its statement of administrative policy, this resolution, if we passed it, would signal to U.S. trading partners that they can continue to discriminate against U.S. exports with impunity and would signal that the United States is not serious about addressing structural imbalances in the global economy and the conditions giving rise to the threat to U.S. national security and economy.

Disapproving this emergency will undercut the serious negotiations that are underway, which are also yielding results. For example, India has already suspended its digital services tax on U.S. companies. The President is a good negotiator, and he deserves more time and our support.

Ending these negotiations at their inception benefits only one actor: China. China will see its full reciprocal tariff limited immediately without offering any concessions to addressing longstanding, bipartisan grievances. Moreover, China will benefit because its trade negotiations will continue, while ours will sputter out.

For these reasons, I encourage my colleagues to vote in opposition to this resolution.

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