U.S. Senate votes to eliminate Trump's global tariffs

Alsharq Tribune-Ahmed Essam 

U.S. Senate voted 51-47 on Thursday to eliminate the national emergency cited by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose global tariffs in early April.

The votes are symbolic as the U.S. House has passed a rule against legislation to block Trump's tariffs through March, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

While most Republicans voted against the measure, four Republicans joined Democrats to vote for the ending of the national emergency.

Earlier this week, the Senate, with bipartisan support, has passed two other resolutions aimed to eliminate duties on goods from Canada and Brazil, respectively.

This indicates that more U.S. lawmakers are disagreeing with the Trump administration's aggressive use of tariffs to reshape U.S. trade relationships, said The Washington Post.

Declaring an international emergency over the "large and persistent trade deficit" in international trade relationships, Trump imposed a 10-percent tariff on all countries and additional "reciprocal" tariffs on countries that had the largest trade imbalances with the United States in early April.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hold a hearing on Trump's tariff on Nov. 5. Two lower courts ruled Trump's tariff illegal and Trump has appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

The United States has collected about 88 billion U.S. dollars in tax revenue from the tariffs through August, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Tax Foundation estimates that tariffs are expected to increase taxes by more than 1,600 dollars per household annually and shrink the gross domestic product by 0.5 percent over the next decade.