Senate Blocks Trump's Brazil Tariffs

Five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats on Tuesday night to pass a resolution terminating President Trump’s emergency authority to impose steep tariffs on Brazil, one of the biggest exporters of coffee to the United States.

The Senate voted 52 to 48 to pass the resolution sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to terminate Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports, such as coffee, oil and orange juice.

Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted with Paul and 47 members of the Democratic caucus to pass the resolution.

Paul, speaking on the Senate floor, called the tariff a tax on U.S. consumers.

The Kentucky Republican argued that the Constitution requires that “taxes must originate in the House” of Representatives.

“Yet, these taxes are originating with the White House,” he said.

McConnell, in a statement, said that Trump’s tariffs are hurting Kentucky businesses and farms.

“New trade barriers imposed this year have made it harder to sustain the supply chains that let thousands of Kentuckians build cars and appliances in the Commonwealth. Retaliatory tariffs on American products have turned agricultural income upside down for many of Kentucky’s nearly 70,000 family farms,” he said.

The passage of the measure is largely symbolic, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is unlikely to bring it to the House floor for a vote, and Trump would veto it if it ever reached his desk.

Democrats were able to force a vote on the resolution because it is privileged under the Senate’s rules.

Trump slapped the tariffs on Brazil in July, even though the U.S. had accumulated a $6.8 billion trade surplus with the country in 2024 — in contrast with the trade deficits the nation is running with many other trading partners.

The resolution would terminate Trump’s July 30 emergency declaration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) that authorized the tariffs against Brazil.

Trump said he imposed the punishing tariffs on Brazil this summer because he was unhappy about the left-wing government’s prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.

The White House said in July that Bolsonaro had been “unjustly charged” and that “political persecution” would threaten the development of Brazil’s political, administrative and economic institutions.

Tillis told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he would vote for the resolution to terminate Trump’s tariff authority because the president views a political squabble over a criminal justice matter as sufficient to justify new tariffs under IEEPA.

“Brazil had a trade surplus [with the United States], and the impetus behind [the tariff] appears to be a disagreement with a judicial proceeding. I just don’t think that’s a strong basis for using the trade lever,” Tillis said.

He warned that if a major trading partner is “all of a sudden” hit with a 50 percent tariff over an issue unrelated to business or trade, “that creates big uncertainty.”

Americans import more than $40 billion annually from Brazil, including more than $2 billion worth of coffee.

The average price for a pound of coffee rose to $9.14 per pound last month — 41 percent higher than what it was in September of 2024.