The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to rescind tariffs imposed on Canada by President Donald Trump, in a rare bipartisan rebuke of the White House's trade policy. The resolution passed 219 to 211, with six Republicans joining all but one Democrat in supporting the measure.
The vote was largely symbolic, as undoing the tariffs would ultimately require President Trump's approval, which is unlikely. The president had warned Republicans against backing the resolution, saying on Truth Social that any Republican voting against tariffs would "seriously suffer the consequences" at election time.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump's tariffs were "causing prices to skyrocket and creating unnecessary uncertainty for American families." He added that House Democrats had forced a successful vote to "detonate the Trump tariffs on Canada."
The resolution, introduced by Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, would terminate the national emergency that Trump declared a year ago. The administration had claimed that illicit drug flow from Canada constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat, allowing tariffs outside the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent the showdown, urging lawmakers to wait for a Supreme Court ruling and engineering a rules change. However, his strategy collapsed on Tuesday evening as Republicans peeled off during a procedural vote, allowing the measure to advance. White House economic council director Kevin Hassett expressed disappointment, saying "The president will make sure they don't repeal his tariffs."
The Senate has already voted to reject Trump's tariffs on Canada and other countries, but both chambers would need to approve the rollback and send it to the president. Trump has recently threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods from Canada over its proposed China trade deal, intensifying a feud with the longtime ally and its prime minister, Mark Carney.
