'Devastating': Republicans detail 'detrimental impact' of Trump policy

10 March

U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. First Lady Melania Trump arrive for the National Governors Association (NGA) dinner and reception in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 22, 2025.

Admirers of liberal economist John Maynard Keynes, including former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, have major disagreements with conservatives from the Austrian and Chicago schools of economics. But they have some common ground when it comes to tariffs. Liberal Krugman shares the late conservative Milton Freeman's disdain for tariffs, warning that they are terrible for both consumers and businesses.

With President Donald Trump pushing 25 percent tariffs on goods imported into the United States from Canada and Mexico as well as a 10 percent hike on goods imported from Mainland China, countless Democrats are voicing their opposition. But some Republicans are worried as well.

In an article published on March 10, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that GOP lawmakers are "growing alarmed over signs that President Trump’s expanding trade war is hurting the economy."

"GOP lawmakers say they're hearing from business owners, exporters, farmers and local leaders that Trump’s threat of steep tariffs against Canada, Mexico and Europe are chilling business sentiment in the United States," Bolton explains. "Companies feel less confident about expanding operations and hiring new workers, given their uncertainty about the costs of imported goods and the potential loss of foreign markets over the next year."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is among the Republicans who is speaking out.

The moderate conservative told The Hill, "The Canadian tariffs will definitely have a detrimental impact on the economy of Maine and on border communities in particular. We have, for example, a major paper mill in Northern Maine right on the border that gets its pulp from Canada. That mill alone, which is by far the biggest employer in the region, employs 510 people directly. I've talked to the owner of that mill; the imposition of a 25 percent tariff could be devastating."

Collins pointed to wood products, lobsters, blueberries and potatoes as some of the items that, in Maine, will be negatively affected by new tariffs.

Collins told The Hill, "I think it freezes investment until they know exactly what the impact is going to be. So I understand the president’s desire to level the playing field, but Canada's just not the problem in Maine."

According to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), new tariffs will have a negative impact in the Bluegrass State.

Paul told The Hill, "I have every major industry in Kentucky lobbying me against them: the cargo shippers, the farmers, the bourbon manufacturers, the homebuilders, the home sellers — you name it — fence manufacturers. The bourbon industry says they're still hurt from the retaliatory tariffs (during Trump's first term). So do the farmers."

Read The Hill's full article at this link.

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