Statement of Administration Policy: S.J. Res. 49 - A Joint Resolution Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Global Tariffs

STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY

(Senate)
(Sen. Wyden, D-OR, and six cosponsors)

The Administration strongly opposes S.J. Res. 49. This resolution would undermine the Administration's efforts to address the unusual and extraordinary threats to national security and economic stability, posed by the conditions reflected in the large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficit, by terminating the national emergency the President declared on April 2, 2025. Congress empowered the President to regulate the importation of goods in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), following an emergency declaration consistent with the terms of the National Emergencies Act (NEA), to address the threat to the United States. The President has acted in a manner consistent with that delegation of authority to address the lack of reciprocity in U.S. bilateral trade relationships. This lack of reciprocity has given rise to a $1.2 trillion annual goods trade deficit—the largest in American history—and gives artificial advantages to foreign imports over goods produced domestically. This has gutted the American industrial base, jeopardized our national security, suppressed wages for U.S. workers, and decimated communities throughout the United States. The President exercised his authority to impose reciprocal tariffs to rectify the conditions that gave rise to this threat to U.S. national and economic security.

On April 9, the President, in his judgment, deemed it necessary and appropriate to pause certain country-specific reciprocal tariffs for 90 days after more than 75 countries expressed their willingness to work with his Administration to confront this national emergency. The President is now in active negotiations with many of these countries to eliminate barriers to U.S. exports. Disturbing the conditions underlying these negotiations would signal to U.S. trading partners that they can continue to discriminate against U.S. exports with impunity. Furthermore, this resolution would signal that the United States is not serious about addressing structural imbalances in the global economy and the conditions giving rise to the threat to the United States' national security and economy. Finally, this resolution would curtail the President's ability to combat China's non-market policies and practices that limit U.S. manufacturing capacity in industrial sectors critical to national security. There can be no doubt that S.J. Res. 49—if passed—would undermine U.S. national and economic security.

If S.J. Res. 49 were presented to the President, he would veto it.