The Detroit News, March 22, 2019 — Republicans in Congress are increasingly willing to speak up in opposition to President Donald Trump’s proposal to place tariffs as high as 25 percent on imported autos as soon as May. And that could spell trouble for the president’s trade agenda in Congress.
Trump has possession of a report from the U.S. Commerce Department that contains recommendations about whether he should impose tariffs on imported autos under a section of law that allows him to do so if a national security threat is determined to exist.
The White House has not released the findings of the report, but U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, introduced bipartisan legislation with U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., to block the president from unilaterally imposing tariffs on imported cars. Republican senators like Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have also spoken out against Trump’s proposal.
