Some in GOP hope to block Trump tariffs

WASHINGTON—Hours after President Donald Trump signed orders for new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Republican opponents weighed options to block them. Starting March 23, Trump’s order implements a 25 percent tariff on foreign steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. While Trump made a concession to the plan’s opponents by exempting Canada and Mexico, several GOP lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation to halt the order. “These so-called ‘flexible tariffs’ are a marriage of two lethal poisons to economic growth—protectionism and uncertainty,” Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Thursday. “Trade wars are not won, they are only lost. Congress cannot be complicit as the administration courts economic disaster.” Flake announced immediate plans to draft a bill that would nullify the new tariffs. Any legislation passed to limit Trump’s ability to impose the tariffs would likely receive a veto, but a two-thirds majority in Congress could override it. “We’re on the verge of a painful and stupid trade war, and that’s bad,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said in a statement. “Temporary exceptions for Canada and Mexico are encouraging, but bad policy is still bad policy.” The most vocal Republican critics of Trump’s tariffs have also been some of the president’s biggest detractors overall. It would take a large group of Republican lawmakers to block the order.