WASHINGTON, D.C. – National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) President Jake Colvin today issued a statement as the Senate considers “The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia” (S. 5205) bill.
“The NFTC recognizes the need to enhance the United States’ ability to impose and enforce meaningful sanctions against Russia and the countries that support its aggression against Ukraine. However, authorizing the use of tariffs to penalize sanctions evasion would be an unprecedented expansion of tariff authority and conflates two very different concepts. Such a move would expand both trade and national security authorities, and enable the Executive Branch to impose broad tariffs on America’s allies and major trading partners disguised as targeted sanctions.
“Given the Administration’s history of using national security as a pretext for imposing new tariffs, rushing to give the President additional unchecked tariff authority to use against America’s allies without adequate guardrails is a surprising choice.
“Congressional leaders ought to consider the long-term effects of the sanctions legislation they seem ready to ram through. Yesterday, the President used a nearly 100-year-old statute for the first time to impose tariffs on Canada. Once Congress delegates an authority, it is nearly impossible to claw it back or control its use.
“We urge Congress not to sleepwalk through this process. Congressional leadership should revisit the tariff provisions in the bill, decouple them from sanctions enforcement measures, and include guardrails and best practices that preserve Congressional authority.”
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About the NFTC
The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) is the premier business association advancing trade, tax, national security, and supply chain policies that support access to the global marketplace. Founded in 1914, NFTC promotes an open, rules-based global economy on behalf of a diverse membership of U.S.-based businesses, who account for over $6 trillion in revenue and employ nearly 6 million people in the United States.
