Congress should take back its trade authority
THERE isn’t much that Republicans and Democrats can agree on, but there’s a great opportunity today for common ground in at least one area. Democrats want to constrain President Trump’s powers and to stop irritating Europe. Republicans talk of small government, lower taxes and free enterprise.
These ends are all served by a bill Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have introduced to restore Congress’ power to impose and set tariffs.
In effect, current law allows Trump to increase taxes unilaterally on consumers and manufacturers and launch a trade war. This power properly belongs to Congress. Trump wields it to the detriment of trade peace and the economy.
The Corker-Toomey bill would require congressional approval of tariffs when they are imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. That 56-year-old law empowers the executive branch to investigate and determine the effects of imports on national security and then take action to “adjust the imports of an article and its derivatives.”
Trump hasused Section 232to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, using the justification of “national security concerns” as outlined in the 1962 legislation. In essence, the president can do what he likes without congressional approval so long as he justifies it on those grounds.
The power over trade and tariffs, however, rightly belongs with Congress. As Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution reads, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties” and “to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” Congress, it seems, intended to give the White House limited leeway only in extraordinary circumstances, but that isn’t the way the loophole is used. Trump, fulfilling campaign promises to counter “unfair trade,” is deploying Section 232 as a carte blanche for trade war.
The national security exception was not intended for this. As President John F. Kennedy, who signed the bill in 1962, explained, “We cannot protect our economy by stagnating behind tariff walls, but that the best protection possible is a mutual lowering of tariff barriers among friendly nations so that all may benefit from a free flow of goods.” This advice is as true today as it ever was.
This is just the latest example of how the executive branch has arrogated power that rightly should remain with Congress. Even as the framers of the Constitution sought to limit the power of the executive, in modern times, presidents including Barack Obama and Trump, have increasingly relied on executive orders and been all too happy to embrace the power ceded to them by Congress. On issues ranging from health care to the environment to the broad security powers granted post-Sept. 11, the executive has taken on roles intended for the legislature.
Congress is to blame, largely, for the growth of the executive. It’s up to Congress to shrink it again. As Trump’s trade war opens on new fronts and hurts Americans, passing Corker-Toomey and giving Congress back its powers on trade is a much-needed correction.