Relating to A National Emergency By the President on February 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for the time.

Mr. Speaker, I led the negotiation on USMCA, and 195 Republicans voted for USMCA and 197 Democrats voted for USMCA. It was a bipartisan effort.

Tariffs, as threatened or imposed, can have an outcome, but not when we look at Brazil and say that we don't like the result of the Presidential election and that we are going to impose 50 percent tariffs, or that we are going to close a bridge as it goes to Canada, like Canada is an enemy. I have not met anybody in America who was ever mad at Canada for anything. They have been a great friend, great ally, and a great neighbor.

Let's have a tariff on NATO because of Greenland. Let's have a tariff on South Korea because of who they talk to in an international arena. Let's impose tariffs on our NATO allies or on European Union because we don't like this or that. We won't negotiate. We will just arbitrarily impose tariffs.

Mr. Speaker, do you know what the most ironic thing is in this debate? Heretofore, I have never met a Republican in Washington who was in favor of tariffs.

The party of Ronald Reagan embracing these tariffs is unheard of. The party of George Bush, Sr., embracing tariffs, part of their existence was to break down trade barriers everywhere. If you want to target a tariff based upon a particular product, gotcha. That is understood, but not the way that these tariffs are being imposed. The ranking member is on the right path.

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