Several members of US President Donald Trump‘s Republican Party facilitated a vote in the House of Representatives against the Canada tariffs he imposed last year.
The majority only came about because, in addition to almost all Democrats, six Republicans also voted for a resolution that would remove the basis for certain tariffs against the neighboring country.
The Republicans have a slim majority in the House of Representatives. It is remarkable that there are several dissidents in the vote on such a fundamental pillar of Trump’s policy.
The president had tried until the end to influence his own party and prevent the vote. He wrote on the Truth Social platform that any Republican in the US Parliament who votes against tariffs will feel the consequences in the coming elections.
In fact, the result of the vote has more symbolic value anyway: In order to withdraw the affected tariffs, the Senate, as the second chamber of parliament, would have to agree. But he has also increasingly spoken out against Trump’s tariffs in the past.
And then Trump himself would have to sign the resolution. This is hardly to be expected, especially since tariffs are a core instrument of his aggressive trade policy.
A year ago, the president issued a decree imposing a 25 percent tariff on imports of goods from Canada. In doing so, he wanted to increase pressure on the government of the neighboring country, which, in his view, is doing too little to prevent drugs from crossing the border into the USA.
Trump justified the tariffs by saying there was a national emergency as a result of this drug smuggling. In the resolution introduced by the Democrats in the House of Representatives, this alleged emergency is declared null and void. (dpa)
date: 2026-02-12 22:30:00