Republican Senators met with President Donald Trump to discuss steel and aluminum tariffs and the effect they’re having on possible passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement.
Bloomberg says the senators talked about economic and political concerns on the tariffs, the negotiations with China, as well as new tariffs that Trump is threatening to impose on auto imports from the European Union.
The group emphasized just how important it is to get Trump’s trade deal with Canada and Mexico passed through Congress.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley told the president they want to work with him to “get past the steel and aluminum tariff issue so USMCA can become law.”
However, Bloomberg says the appeal didn’t seem to work.
Trump followed up the meeting with a Twitter post declaring that “the tariffs are working for Pennsylvania,” one of the key states that helped him to get elected.
Grassley’s most pointed attack on the president’s tariffs came in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.
Grassley wrote that Trump’s signature trade agreement is “dead-on-arrival if he decides not to lift the tariffs on steel and aluminum.”
