By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. Senate bill that would require congressional approval for new tariffs gained more Republican support on Friday, in the second day of a stock market rout sparked by President Donald Trump’s move to impose sweeping new taxes on imports.
Republican U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, joined on as co-sponsors of a bill introduced on Thursday by Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington that would terminate new tariffs within 60 days unless the U.S. Congress explicitly approves them.
It was unclear if their bill had any chance of being taken up in, let alone passing, the Senate where Trump’s party holds a 53-47 majority and many rank-and-file members and Republican leaders are voicing support for Trump’s move, which economists say will push prices higher and risks triggering a recession but the White House contends will spur new investment in U.S. manufacturing.
“Every state has unique industries that are impacted differently by changes in global markets and trade policies, such as agriculture, car manufacturing and aircraft production,” Moran said in statement to Reuters on Friday. “The Constitution gives Congress the authority to make decisions regarding foreign commerce, including tariffs.”
It was the latest sign of unrest among Senate Republicans about Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on the United States’ largest trading partners, following the Tuesday passage of a bill backed by four Republicans and all the chamber’s Democrats, which would have the effect of terminating the new tariffs on Canada.
So far there is no sign that the House of Representatives, also under control of Trump’s Republicans, will take up that bill.
In addition to Murkowski, McConnell and Moran, Democratic Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Peter Welch of Vermont and Mark Warner of Virginia have signed on as sponsors of the Grassley-Cantwell bill.
In a hallway interview, Tillis cited his worries about tariffs’ toll on the agriculture industry in his home state of North Carolina.
He added that he had heard from House Republicans from his state who “are taking a lot of incoming” constituent complaints about the tariffs’ hit.
Tillis, one of just three Republicans defending a Senate seat seen as competitive in next year’s midterm elections, said that his state’s agriculture industry, which produces pork, chicken and turkey could be hit by retaliatory tariffs.
Tillis said he wants to see the Trump administration detail “a well-articulated strategy” in coming weeks on what the tariffs will accomplish. He said he hopes, for example, that the administration will work on a “blockbuster trade agreement” with a major trading partner that would potentially replace the punitive tariffs.
Trump in a social media post on Friday said “my policies will never change.”
Without directly criticizing Trump, Tillis said, “If all we’re doing is ‘set it and forget it’ and not trying to take the edge off of this, I believe there will be an increasing number of people saying that we need to have oversight.”
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Sandra Maler)