Bipartisan legislation will be introduced in the House and the Senate this week to strip President Trump of the power to use national security as a blanket justification for imposing tariffs on foreign goods. The legislation will instead force the White House to seek congressional approval first.
House and Senate aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the legislation’s precise language was still being worked out but said it would be similar to bills introduced last year by the now-retired Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Rep. Bob Gallagher, R-Wisc., that stripped the White House of the authority.
On the Senate side Mark Warner, D-Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., will cosponsor the bill, aides say. Gallagher and Rep. Ron Kind, D-Mich., will introduce the House version. The House version is expected Wednesday with the Senate one soon to follow.
President Trump has used national security as the justification for imposing blanket tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum. The authority comes from section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Such tariffs are exempt from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and are not reviewable by the World Trade Organization.
Trump argued that the tariffs were necessary to protect domestic industries and ensure that the U.S. could reliably produce the metals, which are often used in military contracting.
Trade partners such as Canada and Mexico cried foul, noting that they are allies who share a border with U.S. and resented being labeled as national security threats. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress last year that they could not make exceptions without undermining the effect of the tariff.
Canada and Mexico were initially exempted from the tariffs. The exemptions were removed to pressure them during the talks to produce the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade. The White House has refused to restore the exemptions.
