Congressional Republicans on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump on account of his latest target for tariffs — automobile imports.
Citing national security, Trump has launched an investigation of automobile imports under the same authority, Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, that he used earlier this year to impose wide-ranging steel and aluminum tariffs.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch called the latest move “deeply misguided.” In March, congressional Republicans had a similar response to the president’s announcement of the sweeping steel and aluminum tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, condemning the move, but taking little action to prevent their implementation aside from issuing press releases and urging the president to reconsider.
“There is evidence suggesting that, for decades, imports from abroad have eroded our domestic auto industry,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement announcing the move. In response, Trump has asked for tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars, according to the Wall Street Journal. While Trump promises the tariffs will be “big news” for American auto workers, Republican lawmakers say they could do significant harm to consumers and trade relations abroad. The Department of Commerce will have 270 days to prepare and finalize a report with the investigation’s findings.
“There’s no rational person that could think that we have a national security issue with auto manufacturing,” Tennessee Republican Bob Corker told reporters of the decision on Thursday afternoon. “It’s an abuse of that authority. It’s very blatant.”
Corker recalled Trump’s recent tweet directed to American auto workers which hinted at the decision, and argued that the tariffs seemed designed for political reasons. Corker expressed doubts about the largely unchecked authorities granted by Section 232, noting that is was codified in 1962.
“This whole thing feels like it’s getting out of hand to me,” said Corker. “It feels like everything’s becoming transactional.” The retiring Republican argued that Trump’s trade team is headed down a dangerous path which could compel other countries to arbitrarily impose hefty tariffs on American products in response to the administration’s actions. Asked whether Congress had ceded too much trade authority to the executive branch, Corker answered, “We did cede it years ago, unfortunately, and probably we should be clawing some of it back.”
Previous Congresses have wrangled with the White House over Section 232 concerns, as well. According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress amended the law (19 U.S.C. 1862(f)) in 1980 to exert some control over the process by making it possible to nullify any White House action on petroleum by passing a resolution of disapproval. The February CRS report recommended that Congress could similarly exert influence in response to Trump’s use of Section 232 powers by amending the 1980 legislation “to broaden the scope of products subject to a disapproval resolution.”
Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson said he was open to that idea. “We’ll see how all of these negotiations shake out, but I wouldn’t be opposed to something like that,” he said.
“Unfortunately, prior Congresses have given the administration — any administration — an awful lot of authority in these areas,” said Johnson. “We need to start reclaiming some of that authority.”
Others were less certain that Congress would take action.
“We’ll see,” said South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham when asked if a legislative response would follow Trump’s announcement.
