Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Duties on Articles Imported From Canada

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Rhode Island, as well as Senator Klobuchar and Senator Kaine. We have all been teaming up to terminate Donald Trump's blanket tariffs on products Americans buy from Canada.

Once again, we have an opportunity to cancel a Trump trade tax and put money back into the pockets of the American people.

This is a chance for Senators to show our constituents that we are going to act for them, not for special interests or some new Presidential obsession.

Unlike many of the nations Trump has slapped with taxes, there is already a comprehensive trade deal between the United States and Canada. It was written with input from the Senate Finance Committee, and it was bipartisan. USMCA was a trade deal negotiated by Donald Trump himself, and it got a significant bipartisan vote.

Congress approved the deal, put it into black-letter law, and we made sure--with Senator Brown, in particular, leading the fight--to have a bill with tough enforcement--enforcement teeth--to make sure the United States could hold Canada and Mexico to their commitments.

This is the only way to ensure that farmers, workers, and businesses get the full benefit.

But Trump's trade taxes aren't addressing enforcement issues with Mexico and Canada, or making the USMCA work better. Instead, he is unilaterally undermining supply chains across the board.

He has imposed new tariffs on scores of products we buy from Canada, making groceries, housing, energy, and cars more expensive.

He put a 50-percent tariff on steel and aluminum, a singularly bad idea. Beer, appliances, auto parts--all of them--are getting hammered by that tax.

There are 8 million American jobs that depend on trade with Canada. Canada is the biggest export market for 32 American States.

With this trade war, Trump is destroying jobs and harming America and making our people poorer.

Since national security was one of the rationales for the Trump trade taxes on Canada, I have to point out that his trade war against our close ally is making American allies and us less safe.

For one, Canada is a reliable source of energy, raw materials, and critical minerals that China has repeatedly used as a bargaining chip in trade talks. Critical minerals are essential to manufacturing in the high-tech and defense industries. The Trump administration has invested millions in developing the Canadian critical minerals industry as an alternative to China's near monopoly.

But here is a key point: instead of developing Canada as an alternative to China for raw materials, Donald Trump is driving our closest ally straight into the arms of China.

The Canadian Prime Minister said last week that his country is looking to reengage with India and China to find new markets and new allies that are more reliable than the United States. America would get better results on trade by buying spells from an Etsy witch.

Trump's stated reason for blowing up commerce is fentanyl trafficking. Now, I don't take a backseat to anybody when it comes to cracking down on the scourge of fentanyl. Oregon is no stranger to the devastating effects it has wreaked in our communities.

But, in reality, there is no crisis at the northern border. Less than 0.2 percent of fentanyl entering the United States comes from Canada.

Some of my colleagues on the other side have voiced concerns about tariffs but said they want to give Donald Trump more time to strike a deal. I would ask: what in the past 6 months makes you think that this is somehow magically going to get better?

Instead of negotiating, Donald Trump spends his energy having tantrums about TV ads that accurately quote Ronald Reagan's position on tariffs. He has already increased these tariffs on Canada once. He is now threatening to jack up Canada tariffs by another 10 percent because one of their provinces--just one--took out the Reagan ad.

Who would make a deal with a person who acts like this, who ignores a deal that was made just a few years ago and who constantly threatens to annex their country?

That is what Donald Trump has done with Canada.

These tariffs are doing nothing to help Americans. They are unrelated to trade disputes.

I hope every Senator will vote to repeal the taxes on Canadian goods and help lower costs for our constituents.

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