Top Democrats have slammed Donald Trump’s plans to impose serious tariffs on America’s neighbors and allies, warning that they will hit working families and small businesses hard.
Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the US senate, led the charge by saying the president’s threatened tariffs would likely “hit Americans in their wallets”. “It would be nice if Donald Trump could start focusing on getting the prices down instead of making them go up.”
Schumer added that the White House should set its sights on “competitors who rig the game, like China, rather than attacking our allies”.
Trump has set in train 25% import taxes for Canada and Mexico across all products other than Canadian energy which will face a 10% tariff. China will also have 10% tariffs, with the new impositions scheduled to start on Tuesday.
While the trio of affected countries are preparing retaliatory moves, with China saying it will lodge a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization against the US, Democratic leaders are flagging potentially devastating consequences domestically for American workers.
Ken Martin, who was chosen to be the next chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, said that blanket tariffs would cost working families while Trump would ensure that corporations get a pass.
“He’s using American workers as pawns in his petty political games. If a president promised that they’d help my family get by, and then they did this, I’d be pretty pissed off. So, you should be pissed off,” Martin said in a statement.
In a largely symbolic gesture, given Republican control of both chambers of Congress, two Democratic senators have introduced a bill to force Trump to seek congressional approval for implementing any tariffs on trading partners. The bill, crafted by Chris Coons from Delaware and Tim Kaine from Virginia, would require the president to explain his plan and its impact on the US economy and foreign policy.
“If the president is going abuse this power to bully and coerce our allies, Congress should take this authority back,” Coons said in a statement.
Deep anxiety about the prudence of Trump’s aggressive move is also being expressed by parties who are normally allied with the president.
The US Chamber of Commerce, a powerful force in conservative politics, said that Trump was making a mistake in thinking that tariffs could solve the problem of immigration across US borders and fentanyl flowing into the country.
“The imposition of tariffs is unprecedented, won’t solve these problems and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains,” the chamber’s John Murphy told CNN.
