US Senate passes bill with Republican support to rescind Trump's tariffs on Brazil

[Uncle Joe]

Republicans break ranks as vote passes 52-48 in rare bipartisan rebuke of US president’s trade policies

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The resolution, led by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, would overturn the national emergency that Trump has declared to justify the levies, though it is all but certain to stall in the US House, where the Republican-controlled chamber acted to pre-emptively shut down any attempt to block the president’s tariffs. In the unlikely event the measure were to reach the president’s desk, it would meet Trump’s veto.

“Tariffs are a tax on American consumers. Tariffs are a tax on American businesses. And they are a tax that is imposed by a single person: Donald J Trump,” Kaine said in a floor speech.

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Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil, tying them to what he has called a “witch-hunt” prosecution of his far-right ally, the former president, Jair Bolsonaro. In July, he declared a national emergency with respect to “recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil” that he said amounts to an “unusual and extraordinary threat”. Bolsonaro was convicted in September and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a military coup in 2022.

“This President has said that their prosecution of a disgraced former politician is a national emergency for the United States. How could that be?” Kaine said in advance of the vote, accusing Trump of attempting an “end-run” around Congress. “If this is a national emergency for the United States, any president of any party could say that anything is a national emergency for the United States.”

Kaine also noted that the US ran a trade surplus of nearly $7bn with Brazil last year.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/28/us-senate-trump-tariffs-brazil

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