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Republican Lawmaker Floats Bill to Expand Trump’s Tariff Powers

The bill by Representative Sean P. Duffy, Republican of Wisconsin, would allow President Trump to unilaterally raise tariffs on a foreign product in some cases.Credit...Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker plans to introduce legislation on Thursday that would embolden President Trump’s trade war by granting him sweeping new executive powers to increase tariffs on imports.

The proposal, by Representative Sean P. Duffy of Wisconsin, is unlikely to pass Congress, but it has alarmed conservative advocacy groups and business lobbyists, who warn that such an idea could further destabilize the global rules of trade and prompt other countries to adopt similar presidential powers.

The legislation would allow Mr. Trump to unilaterally raise tariffs on a foreign product if he determined that a trading partner had imposed “significantly” higher tariffs or other trade barriers on that same American good. The draft proposal would also give the president power to enter into new trade agreements without congressional approval.

The president already has broad powers to impose tariffs but must go through certain channels to put them into effect, including a formal investigation by the Commerce Department or other agencies. His actions can also be overturned, in some cases, by the United States International Trade Commission or the World Trade Organization.

Mr. Duffy’s office did not respond to requests for comment. But he told Fox Business Network on Thursday morning that the legislation would give the president “the tools to go product by product, so that we can be reciprocal” with trading partners.

“We can mirror the tariffs they have on our products,” Mr. Duffy said. “And the idea here is, we’re free traders. We don’t want tariffs. But our trading partners have no incentive to negotiate with us.”

The bill would have Congress officially adopt an economic philosophy that Mr. Trump favors but that most economists reject, declaring that the American trade deficit in goods “is a drag on economic growth and undermines economic prosperity.”

A White House spokeswoman had no comment on the bill. But two senior administration officials said the idea to embrace a call for more tariff powers in Mr. Trump’s coming State of the Union address was being pushed by the president’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, and had been circulated last week with several other drafts of the speech.

No decision has been made about including the language, the officials said. The idea is opposed by the director of Mr. Trump’s National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, and other advisers who have repeatedly raised questions about the impact of more tariffs on the country’s economy.

On Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, asked Mr. Trump to scrap or delay his State of the Union speech, scheduled for Jan. 29, until the government shutdown ends.

Democrats are unlikely to advance any legislation granting Mr. Trump more trade authority, either in the House, which they control, or in the Senate by providing votes for a bill.

“Giving him even more authority is a recipe for more economic chaos,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, calling Mr. Trump’s approach so far “ineffective and ham-handed.”

Republican lawmakers have also expressed skepticism about expanding presidential tariff powers, including Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee. Mr. Grassley has suggested that he will push forward with efforts to limit the unilateral trade authority of presidents. “We aren’t going to give him any greater authority,” he told reporters last week. “We’ve already delegated too much.”

Business lobbyists and free-market advocacy groups have begun a pressure campaign to dissuade rank-and-file Republicans from signing on as co-sponsors of Mr. Duffy’s bill, which they warn would undermine American competitiveness and upend the rules of international trade. The critics also warn that the law could violate Article I of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to tax and set tariffs.

Some of those groups worry Republicans might support the bill simply to help Mr. Trump, without considering its long-term effects.

“Even though the likelihood of the passage of this thing is pretty low, it’s a dangerous marker for them to be throwing down,” said Brandon Arnold, the executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative advocacy group in Washington. “This is a complete game-changer, in a very negative sense, for the rules-based system of trade that the United States and the globe have benefited from.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s foremost business lobbying group, urged lawmakers to reject the proposal in a letter last Friday, warning that it would “invite massive tariff retaliation against U.S. exports,” undermine job creation and hit farmers and ranchers particularly hard.

“The harm to Americans would be immediate,” wrote Neil Bradley, the chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer. “Tariffs are taxes, and they are paid by American families and American businesses.”

Mr. Trump has repeatedly invoked his existing trade authorities to raise tariffs and other duties on imported goods. He has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of imports from China, which his administration accuses of intellectual property theft and a long list of other trade violations. And he has imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from the European Union and countries like Canada and Japan to protect industries that his administration calls vital for national security.

The Trump administration has also made frequent use of a World Trade Organization provision that allows countries to levy high duties on certain imports to combat the practice of “dumping” — when a country sells exports at a lower price than it charges at home.

Mr. Duffy’s bill would grant presidents the ability to raise tariffs in a similar way for any good — whether it is being “dumped” or not — to counter high tariffs on the American version of the same good.

“The president should have a wide array of tools to open the markets of United States trading partners,” the draft text reads, “and encourage participation in negotiations to liberalize trade in goods on a fair and reciprocal basis, including the authority to adjust tariff rates to reciprocal levels.”

Those tools include raising tariff rates against a trading partner — and continuing to escalate them should the other country retaliate. The president would also gain the ability “to negotiate and seek to enter into an agreement with the foreign country that commits the country to reduce the rate of duty or reduce or eliminate nontariff barriers” on the good in question.

Under current law, presidents may enter into trade agreements, but Congress must approve them.

Emily Cochrane and Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Wisconsin Republican Pushes to Give Trump a Freer Hand to Raise Tariffs. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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