A growing number of Republican lawmakers in the US Senate are reportedly turning their back on President Donald Trump over the Washington’s protectionist trade policies and the imposition of hefty tariffs on major US imports.
Republicans are increasingly worried that Trump’s trade blitz could cripple the US economy and hand control of Congress to Democrats, according to a Politico report on Tuesday.
“Republican senators are at their breaking point,” the US-based magazine said. “The mounting frustration with the Republican president is a warning sign for the party amid what’s been a surprisingly favorable stretch.”
GOP senators said Trump had listened to their concerns in White House meetings and phone calls but had plowed ahead anyway, levying steel and aluminum tariffs on allies and now leaning toward duties on cars imported from the European Union (EU) countries.
Washington is currently mulling tariffs of up to 20 percent on all cars and car parts manufactured within the EU. It has already levied 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada, Mexico and China.
The bloc recently hit back with retaliatory tariffs on iconic US goods worth 3.2 billion dollars, including jeans and motorcycles.
“I’d like to kill ’em,” said Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a close Trump ally, referring to the US administration’s expanding list of tariffs.
Senators have on numerous occasions warned that US allies are retaliating with tariffs of their own and GOP leaders are concerned about the economy taking a nosedive over the next couple of month leading to midterm elections.
“Individual senators have met with the president, including me. The Ag committee met with him, the Finance Committee met with him. And there’s nobody for this,” said Senator Pat Roberts, the Agriculture Committee chairman, adding that Trump is “a protectionist who has his policy wrapped around the rear axle of a pickup. And it’s hard to get out.”
The US president argued on March 8 that enormous flows of imports to the US were putting in jeopardy the American national security.
The Politico report said a number of senators believed Trump had abused his authority with the steel and aluminum tariffs, and they were discussing whether to change the definition of national security to restrict Trump’s actions.
On Friday, General Motors Company, America’s largest automobile manufacturer, warned that higher tariffs on imported vehicles under consideration by Trump could cost US jobs while isolating American businesses from the global market.
Some 30 percent of the vehicles GM sold on the US market in 2017 were manufactured abroad, according to the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research. Some 86 percent of those vehicles came from Canada and Mexico, while others came from Europe and China.
Some White House aides have said that Trump is misusing the national security issue to put pressure on Canada and Mexico to agree to concessions in talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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