Last Updated Mar 8, 2018 3:21 PM EST
President Trump is signing a proclamation on steel and aluminum tariffs at the White House Thursday afternoon, after announcing the tariffs last week. The tariffs — 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports — will go into effect 15 days from now, and, according to the Associated Press, all countries will be invited to attempt to negotiate individual exclusions from the tariffs.
There will be exemptions for Canada and Mexico for now, and Mr. Trump has suggested that Australia and perhaps other allies could also receive some relief. In a meeting with his Cabinet earlier Thursday, the president said he reserves the right to change the figures and add and drop countries at will.
Mr. Trump has long called for fairer trade deals, and argues that the tariffs are necessary to safeguard the nation’s struggling steel and aluminum against less expensive foreign imports.
But the president’s party isn’t on board. Republicans made a full-court press over the past 24 hours to try to change the president’s mind on this issue, CBS News’ Nancy Cordes reports.
On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, suggested he would introduce legislation to nullify anything the president issues on tariffs.
Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, spoke to Mr. Trump. So did House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who has been the GOP’s point person on this issue in the House. Brady was trying to come up with an alternative plan the president could support; clearly, he was unsuccessful.
On Wednesday, more than 100 Republicans signed a letter to Mr. Trump, imploring him to hold off on the tariffs. Republicans are concerned the imports could offset the benefits of the tax overhaul they worked to hard to pass last year. The president’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, announced his impending resignation shortly after Mr. Trump announced the tariffs.
The fact that the White House did agree to exempt Canada and Mexico from these tariffs – at least temporarily — is not all that comforting to Republicans. They still worry about how other major U.S. allies all around the world will react.
“Just exempting NAFTA trading partners is not enough,” one top GOP aide told Cordes.
They haven’t given up on the possibility that they can get the president to tweak these tariffs if the markets or other countries react badly. Most Republicans say legislation blocking the tariffs is not an option – anything they pass would have to have enough votes to overcome a presidential veto, and there are too many Republicans who would be reluctant to vote against the president and too many rust belt Democrats who like the tariffs.
Republicans are especially frustrated because the White House has continued to keep them completely in the dark. In fact, as recently as 1 p.m., trade staffers in key congressional offices still had not been briefed on the White House tariff plan.
Follow along for live updates.
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