Sens. Doug Jones, D-Ala., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., on Wednesday usher ined a bill intended to delay the tariffs of 20 to 25 percent on imported wheels and trucks that President Donald Trump is reportedly considering.
The beak, titled the “Automotive Jobs Act of 2018,” would require the International Craft Commission (ITC) to conduct “a comprehensive study of the well-being, health, and vitality of the Joint States automotive industry before tariffs could be applied,” according to a entreat release.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for remark on the bill.
“These tariffs are a tax on American consumers and they’re going to price Alabama jobs,” Jones said in a statement. “I share the President’s objective to reinvigorate manufacturing and secure trade deals that benefit our state, but not at the expense of one of Alabama’s biggest job creators.”
Alexander said he wants to pigeon-hole the tariff proposal “until the President has a second opinion from the Ecumenical Trade Commission about the effect those tariffs would be dressed on the more than 7 million jobs in the American automotive industry.”
Mass other requirements, the study would command the ITC to analyze data on annual exports and bring ins of U.S.-made cars, as well as assess the effect that an increase in auto contriving costs would have on American jobs.
Under the Jones-Alexander tabulation, auto tariffs could not be applied until an ITC report satisfying those wants is submitted to Congress.
In June, Trump threatened to slap a 20 percent schedule of charges on imports from members of the European Union if that bloc’s craft barriers are “not soon broken down and removed.”
Trump tweet: Based on the Taxes and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. & its great companies and breadwinners by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and transferred, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Establish them here
The five-page bill arrives as tensions over the Trump application’s protectionist trade policies continue to rise at home and abroad.
Numerous Republican lawmakers from the traditionally pro-free calling party excoriated the administration’s proposal on Tuesday to provide a $12 billion improvised aid package for farmers affected by the tariffs.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., described the bailout as a team of “gold crutches.” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., compared the Trump administration’s augmenting interference in markets with “a Soviet-type of economy.”
Jones and Alexander had in the old days collaborated in a June 7 letter urging Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross not to exercise auto tariffs, which they warned could “put hundreds of thousands of American assigns at risk including many in our home states.”
Jones said Wednesday that they had not let in a response from Ross.
In the Senate shortly after the text of the account was released, Jones tore into Trump’s trade policies, accusing them of make up a crisis “that threatens to permanently harm our businesses and our farms.”
He annexed: “Mr. President, this is a self-inflicted wound.”
Alexander, who followed Jones on the Senate dumbfound, was equally blunt in his condemnation of both the tariffs and the bailout proposal.
“I sooner a be wearing no doubt there’s a trade problem. Some countries are taking profit of us,” Alexander said. “I also have no doubt that shooting yourself in both feet at in a trice is not the right solution to our problem.”
Read the full text of the bipartisan tally:
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.