U.S. Senate measure to end Trump’s Canada tariffs may pass with GOP support

The vote on the Democratic measure comes as Trump is due to announce his so-called 'reciprocal' tariff plan that seeks to reorient global trade.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday is set to consider a measure to end the emergency justification used by President Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada — and enough Republicans may vote to ensure the resolution passes.

The vote on the Democratic measure comes as Trump is due to announce his so-called “reciprocal” tariff plan that seeks to reorient global trade, an action the U.S. president has taken to calling “Liberation Day.”

Wednesday is also the day when a temporary exemption on some products from the earlier 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods is set to expire. Yet it still wasn’t clear before Trump’s announcement if those tariffs — meant to address what the White House claims is a failure to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. — will return.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said his resolution, which has backing from other Democrats and even some Republicans, addresses the fact that Canada is not a top source of fentanyl in the U.S. and that tariffs on Canadian goods will lead to higher prices and economic costs for Americans.

“No one in this chamber … would dispute that fentanyl is a massive problem, and indeed an emergency,” Kaine said on the Senate floor Wednesday ahead of the vote.

“But … calling it a Canadian emergency and putting the same tariffs on Canadian products as we put on Mexican (products) is an invented emergency, not a real emergency.”

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment report, released last week, does not mention Canada in its section on illicit drugs and fentanyl — an omission Kaine repeatedly highlighted.

A small fraction of the fentanyl that comes into the U.S. enters from Canada. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized just under 20 kilograms of fentanyl at the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, and authorities have seized about half a kilogram since January, according to federal data.