President Trump’s proposed steel and aluminum tariffs would undercut the GOP-passed tax law, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch warned Tuesday.
“I am particularly troubled that the impact of these proposed tariffs would undermine the overwhelming and immediate success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that we worked together to bring into law,” Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee with oversight of taxes and trade, told Trump in a letter.
Hatch warned that the burden of the tariffs would fall on American consumers, not on other countries.
Trump’s call to impose across-the-board tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum has generated a rift with congressional Republicans.
In the House, Speaker Paul Ryan and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady have called on Trump to reconsider the move. Trump can implement the tariffs unilaterally through a power granted by Congress for national security purposes decades ago.
Congressional Republicans are publicly lobbying Trump in the hopes that he’ll reconsider the decision before making it final. Trump still has the option of changing his plans before announcing a final decision.
