The Trump administration said Friday it had granted tariff exemptions on some Canadian imports, an implicit acknowledgment that President Donald Trump’s trade policies could hurt Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The canceled customs duties include 50% duties on certain agricultural products. These duties were applied to Canadian products after the country withdrew from trade negotiations with the Trump administration in late August.
Polls show Democrats have a strong chance of winning majorities in the House and Senate.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who faces a tough re-election battle in Maine, first announced the news on social media: “I am pleased to have secured additional tariff exemptions on products crucial to Maine’s agricultural industries, including blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed growers.
She said plastic boxes, crates, packaging materials, refrigeration equipment, sealing and labeling machines, packaging equipment, films, foils and seaweed products were among other products granted exemptions.
A document posted on the White House website confirmed the measure, but said the administration was also adding tariffs on “certain valves, mats, waste” and other items to make up for the duties it was removing.
The White House press release indicates that this decision was intended to “further refine the scope of customs tariffs” applied to Canada.
Collins, in his announcement, said many “farmers and producers rely on specialized equipment, packaging materials and other products from Canada that are not available from U.S. suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense.”
Trump has repeatedly said, “They don’t have anything we need” from Canada. “We have everything,” Trump said in September.
Collins’ announcement did not mention Trump, only senior administration officials such as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The White House announcement made no mention of Collins, who has sometimes sparred with Trump.
The Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I will continue to work directly with administration officials to secure additional relief and encourage a broader trade agreement with Canada, our neighbor, ally and largest trading partner,” Collins said.
Other Republicans have also broken with Trump’s best-known economic policies. Mike Rogers, a candidate for a Senate seat in Michigan, told NBC News last week that he would like to see the trade war with Canada “over.”
After U.S. officials issued what Prime Minister Mark Carney called “unfair” and “uneconomic,” the United States hit Canada with two waves of tariffs, the second of which included a 50 percent tariff.
On September 28, Trump predicted that Carney would remove the tariffs. “I think what’s going to happen is over the next three or four weeks they’re going to come to us and say, ‘we’re going to get rid of all the tariffs,'” the president said.
“We’re going to win it all,” Trump predicted. “They’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘Sir, we’re sorry.'”
Asked a day later about Trump’s prediction, Carney laughed at a news conference, adding that he had no further comment.
Carney has remained steady in the face of Trump’s repeated verbal attacks since the trade war began in August. While Trump increases attacks on social networks, Carney turns to the rest of the world, opening the Canadian economy to China, India and the United Kingdom.
Next week, Carney is expected to reach a historic agreement with the European Union on the terms of becoming the bloc’s first-ever “associate member” at an EU-Canada summit in Montreal.
The 27 member states of the European Union collectively constitute the world’s largest trading bloc and the union is the third largest in the world behind the United States and China.
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