Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote Wednesday on a resolution against President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, and there’s evidence that enough Republicans have grown tired of the trade war that the vote could pass.
The resolution from Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, seeks to terminate the national emergency that Trump invoked in February 2025 to empower his tariffs on a range of imports from Canada.
Trump’s emergency declaration — that Canada’s “failure” to address cross-border drug trafficking created an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security — underpins the 35 per cent tariffs currently imposed on a range of Canadian goods that don’t qualify for exemption under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Congress has the authority to review presidential declarations of emergencies.
Even if the resolution succeeds in the House, and makes its way through the Senate for approval, Trump retains veto power. However, losing a tariff vote in the House would be a politically symbolic blow to the president, who has made tariffs the cornerstone economic policy of his second term.
Although the resolution has been in the works since March of last year, Wednesday will be the first time the House will have the opportunity to vote on it, as it was repeatedly blocked by Republican leadership.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Marine One on the south lawn of the White House on Feb. 6. (Jose Luis Magana/The Associated Press)
The blocking effort finally collapsed on Tuesday.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had tried to stop the vote through a procedural move that would have allowed him to bar debate on any tariffs imposed through the president’s emergency declarations through the end of July.
Three Republicans sided with all Democratic representatives in the narrowly divided House to vote down the rule 217-214, clearing the way for Wednesday’s vote on the tariffs against Canada.
Tariffs a ‘significant tax,’ says Nebraska Republican
“Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs,” said Nebraska’s Don Bacon, one of the Republicans who rebelled against the party leadership, in a social media post.
“Tariffs have been a ‘net negative’ for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying.”
Similar Democrat-led efforts to pass an anti-tariff resolution succeeded in the Senate last year, when a handful of Republican senators defied Trump with their votes. But the Republican leadership in the House shelved it.
All the tariffs Trump has imposed on the basis of national emergencies hang in the balance of a looming Supreme Court decision. The nation’s top court heard the case in early November, and a decision could come as early as Feb. 20, the next date that the justices have set aside to release their rulings.