Democratic Wins Would Shift Congress' Trade Debate but Fall Short of Tariff Rollbacks, Reuters Reports
Oversight hearings and symbolic rollback votes would follow a Democratic takeover, trade experts told Reuters — but with no veto-proof majority in either chamber, President Trump's tariff agenda would run into friction, not a wall.
President Donald Trump's trade agenda will face a new source of friction if Democrats win control of Congress on Tuesday, with a cascade of oversight hearings and symbolic tariff rollback votes likely next year — but Trump will remain undeterred in his zeal for more tariff actions, trade experts and congressional aides told Reuters in a Nov. 1 analysis. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in both the House and the Senate to overturn Republicans' narrow 218-214 and 53-47 majorities; opinion polls favor Democrats to win the House while the Senate remains too close to call, leaving Democrats far short of a veto-proof two-thirds majority in any scenario.
'One of the most obvious priorities would be repealing Trump's tariffs on Canada, which are raising prices and harming communities on both sides of the border,' said Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the tax- and trade-focused Senate Finance Committee, according to Reuters. If they win at least one chamber, Democrats could stage symbolic votes on long-sidelined bills such as Senator Chuck Schumer's 'End Trump's Tariff Tax Act,' which would scrap Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the statute backing the punitive tariffs on Canadian goods, and Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, used for Trump's temporary 10% global tariffs — and would refund all duties collected under those laws. 'Democrats are going to try a lot of things. I just don't think anything's going to get across the finish line because neither party will have a veto-proof majority in any scenario,' said William Reinsch, a non-resident adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
What would change is the oversight. Gaining control of trade committee gavels would give Democrats a platform for hearings into the process for determining tariff exemptions that benefit specific companies, how tariffs are impacting small businesses, and how the administration is doling out the investment funds pledged by Japan, South Korea and other trading partners, Reuters reported. The White House is not standing still: the administration is developing plans to rely more heavily on executive actions, including on trade, and a forthcoming investigation into excess industrial capacity in 16 major trading partners is still expected. 'President Trump will never waver from putting America First, whether in trade negotiations or through an economic agenda of tax cuts and deregulation,' White House spokesman Matthew Middleton said in a statement reported by Reuters.
