In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing dispute over U.S. trade policy, Democrats in the Senate are moving to force votes aimed at overturning President Donald Trump’s controversial tariffs on imports from Canada and Brazil. The effort, led by Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and joined by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, is the latest salvo in a battle that has pitted lawmakers, industries, and international partners against the White House’s combative stance on trade.
Senator Kaine announced on September 16, 2025, that he would introduce two bipartisan Senate resolutions to terminate the national emergencies declared by President Trump to justify tariffs on the United States’ northern and southern trading partners. According to the Associated Press, these measures are supported by a coalition of Democrats and a handful of Republicans, including Paul, who has been a vocal critic of the administration’s trade policies.
The backdrop to these legislative maneuvers is a turbulent economic landscape. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported just last week that Trump’s tariff policy is expected to increase joblessness and inflation while dragging down overall economic growth in 2025. These concerns are not limited to Democrats; several Republicans from farm states and business-heavy regions have expressed unease about the tariffs’ impact on industries that rely on Canadian and Brazilian imports. Yet, as noted by Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, many in the GOP have continued to defer to Trump, arguing the president deserves time to negotiate better deals. “I think everybody kind of knows my views on tariffs, but the fact of the matter is, the president ran on this,” Thune remarked earlier this year, according to AP reporting.
The first of the two resolutions targets the emergency declaration President Trump signed in February 2025, which imposed tariffs on Canadian goods as a punitive measure for what the administration described as Canada’s failure to curb the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. The second seeks to overturn a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports, which Trump linked to Brazil’s domestic policies and, notably, the criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. These tariffs have already had ripple effects: coffee prices have surged by more than 20% over the past year, a development that has not gone unnoticed by American consumers and importers alike.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of four Republicans who joined Democrats in an earlier attempt to block the Canadian tariffs, underscored the real-world consequences for her constituents. “Maine’s economy is entwined with Canada’s,” she said, pointing out that her state receives 95% of its home heating oil and 90% of its potash fertilizer from across the border. Despite such concerns, the House of Representatives voted on September 16 to temporarily block any effort to force votes on the tariffs until next year, effectively rendering the Senate resolutions symbolic even if they pass.
Still, Kaine and his allies are undeterred. The law they are invoking allows Congress to revisit and force votes on a president’s emergency declarations every six months, a process Kaine says he will repeat until the policies are reversed. “It’s not theoretical,” Kaine emphasized in remarks reported by The Canadian Press. “Now it’s real,” he said, expressing hope that more Republicans will break ranks as the economic pain becomes more acute.
The trade clash extends far beyond Capitol Hill. In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has slammed the U.S. tariffs as “political” and “illogical,” penning a forceful op-ed in the New York Times in which he declared, “Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table.” Lula argued that the tariffs make little sense given the $410 billion surplus in bilateral trade in goods and services the U.S. has amassed over the past 15 years. He added that his government remains open to negotiations, but not at the expense of Brazilian institutions.
The U.S. tariffs on Brazil were imposed in July 2025, shortly after Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup following his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula. The ruling, which Lula called “historic,” followed months of investigations that uncovered plans to assassinate Lula, the vice president, and a Supreme Court justice. Trump, for his part, justified the tariffs as a response to what he termed a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro, a close ally.
International tensions have only heightened since the Supreme Court’s decision. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the Trump administration “will respond accordingly,” a comment that Brazil’s Foreign Ministry swiftly condemned as an inappropriate threat. “The country’s judiciary is independent and Bolsonaro was granted due process,” the ministry insisted, defending the legitimacy of the Brazilian legal proceedings.
Bolsonaro, meanwhile, remains under house arrest in Brasilia. On September 14, he briefly left his residence for a medical procedure, his first public appearance since the Supreme Court’s verdict. The former president has become a flashpoint for political passions in Brazil, with die-hard supporters rallying outside the hospital and calling for his amnesty. His son Carlos Bolsonaro decried the security measures as “the biggest circus in Brazilian history,” reflecting the deep divisions that the case—and the U.S. response—have stirred within Brazilian society.
Back in Washington, the debate over tariffs is exposing fissures within the Republican Party. While some, like Senator Rand Paul, have consistently opposed Trump’s use of emergency powers to implement sweeping trade restrictions, others have been more circumspect. The April Senate vote to block the Canadian tariffs passed with the support of Paul, Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, but the House’s refusal to take up the measure left it dead in the water. Kaine has also forced a vote on broader global tariffs announced by Trump in early April 2025, which was narrowly defeated 49-49—an outcome that might have been different had McConnell and Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island not been absent.
The economic stakes are considerable. The United States ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil in 2024, according to Census Bureau data. Brazil, for its part, is a major supplier of oil, orange juice, coffee, iron, and steel to the U.S. The tariffs have not only strained diplomatic relations but also contributed to rising prices for everyday goods, fueling public dissatisfaction at a time of broader economic anxiety.
As the Senate prepares for another round of votes, the outcome may be largely symbolic in the short term, given the House’s procedural roadblocks. But with the law allowing for repeated challenges every six months, and with economic pressures mounting, the debate over Trump’s tariffs is unlikely to fade away. For now, the fight continues—on the Senate floor, in the halls of Congress, and in the homes and businesses that feel the impact of every trade decision made in Washington.
With both domestic and international voices pushing back, and with real economic consequences at stake, the coming months will test not only the durability of Trump’s trade agenda but also the willingness of Congress to assert its constitutional authority over matters of commerce and national emergency.
