U.S. House votes against Trump's tariffs on Canada

The U.S. Put up of Representatives passed a declaration against chair Donald Trump's tariffs on canadian river goods, delivering a stinging reprehension to the administration for launching a trade war on its northern neighbour.

The House voted 219-211 in favour of a resolution seeking to terminate the national emergency that Trump invoked in February 2025 to empower his tariffs on a range of imports from Canada.

Six Republicans defied the White House and joined the Democrats in voting for the measure.

Trump's emergency declaration — that Canada's "failure" to address cross-border fentanyl trafficking created an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. National security — underpins the 35 per cent tariffs currently imposed on a range of Canadian goods that don't qualify for exemption under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

Congress has the authority to review presidential declarations of emergencies. But even if the resolution is also approved by a simple majority in the Senate, Trump retains veto power to keep the emergency declaration and the tariffs in place.

However, losing the House vote is a politically symbolic blow to the president, who has made tariffs the cornerstone economic policy of his second term.

Lawmakers debated the resolution earlier Wednesday ahead of the vote.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the Democrat from New York who introduced the measure, accused Trump of declaring an emergency when none exists.

"The only emergency here is the economic one created by Donald J. Trump's tariffs," Meeks said from the House floor.

"Canada isn't a threat. Canada is our friend. Canada is our ally," Meeks said, calling the tariffs unnecessary and harmful taxes on the American people.

Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida criticized the Democrats for putting forward a resolution that he says ignores the reality of the fentanyl crisis and Canada's role in it.

"Apparently they don't support tariffing a country that acknowledges they have a drug trafficking crisis, but they weren't doing anything to fix it," Mast said.

The debate coincided with the release of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's economic and budgetary outlook report, which projects that U.S. Businesses will absorb 30 per cent of the increased costs of imports due to tariffs by reducing their profit margins and pass on the remaining 70 per cent to consumers through higher prices.

Although the resolution has been in the works since March of last year, Wednesday was the first time the House had the opportunity to vote on it, as it was repeatedly blocked by Republican leadership.

The blocking effort finally collapsed on Tuesday.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had tried to stop the vote through a procedural move that would have allowed him to bar debate on any tariffs imposed through the president's emergency declarations through the end of July.

Three Republicans sided with all Democratic representatives in the narrowly divided House to vote down the rule 217-214, clearing the way for Wednesday's vote on the tariffs against Canada.

"Congress needs to be able to ​debate on tariffs," said Nebraska's Don Bacon, one of the ⁠Republicans who rebelled against the party leadership, in a social media post.  

"Tariffs have been a 'net negative' ‌for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying."

Similar Democrat-led efforts to pass an anti-tariff resolution succeeded in the Senate last year, when a handful of Republican senators defied Trump with their votes. But the Republican leadership in the House shelved it.

All the tariffs Trump has imposed on the basis of national emergencies hang in the balance of a looming Supreme Court decision. The nation's top court heard the case in early November, and a decision could come as early as Feb. 20, the next date that the justices have set aside to release their rulings.

Correspondent

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