President Donald Trump is committing an "abuse of his authority" by justifying tariffs against European allies, Canada and other countries with his use of a section of the Federal Trade Act dealing with national security to justify his acts, Sen. Bob Corker said Sunday.
"It has successfully united the world against us," the Tennessee Republican told CBS' "Face the Nation." "There's not a person at the White House that can articulate why they are doing this, other than to create leverage on NAFTA, and I don't know of a senator that isn't concerned about the broad use of this."
If Trump is going to use the section, he should bring the matter of tariffs to Congress. Senators, including Corker, have been pushing for a requirement that Trump run such plans through Congress.
"I think there's a jailbreak brewing, I really do," said Corker. "I think people, especially as these tariffs are being put in place against us, these countermeasures, and as people realize that 22,000 companies, 22,000 companies, have asked for exemptions, the White House is only — or the Commerce Department has only dealt with 98 of those. There's no basis to deal with them. It's not unlike what happened on the immigration issue, where there was no preparation."
Corker pointed out that that there are other sections of the Trade Act, such as Section 201 "that right now is against China, dealing with washing machines and solar panels. There's a 301 component to deal with their theft of our intelligence here in the country, their theft of what our companies are using to create products."
That, however, is not where the problem is, said the senator.
"The president broadly has used section 232 of the Trade Act, which is national security," said Corker. "It's absolutely an abuse of his authority."
Trump, meanwhile, is not backing down, said Corker, and he has "successfully united the world against us."
"There's not a person at the White House that can articulate why they are doing this, other than to create leverage on NAFTA," said Corker.
Some lawmakers are pushing forward with an amendment in hope of curbing Trump's use of tariffs, and Corker said the rule would require the president to bring his tariff orders through Congress.
"If he's going to use it, once he completes negotiations on tariffs, he should bring it to Congress," said Corker. "It's our responsibility. A tariff is a tax on Americans."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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