Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is introducing legislation to roll back and refund President Donald Trump’s latest sweeping round of tariffs — including the new 50% levy on goods from Canada. 

The new bill — shared first with MS NOW — stands little chance of becoming law. But Schumer is hoping it will underscore the campaign message that Democrats are fighting to bring down the cost of living. 

Schumer’s measure would reverse the duties between 10% and 12.5% that the Trump White House applied to 60 trading partners in July, and it would require the government to refund tariff revenue collected under those duties.

At the time of the announcement in July, the White House alleged these countries failed to ban the use of forced labor practices in their trade with the United States, relying on a provision of a 1974 trade law — one of the legal avenues the Trump team has leaned on since the Supreme Court struck down his global “liberation day” tariffs. That new round of tariffs is already the subject of legal action brought by Democratic-led states.

The bill also would undo the 50% tariffs Trump slapped on about $20 billion of imports from Canada  — America’s second largest trading partner — including dairy, wine, furniture, and other goods.

In a statement shared with MS NOW, Schumer said Republicans simply won’t stand up to “Trump’s nonsense” and that Americans are “crying out for relief.” 

“That’s why I am introducing legislation that would end Trump’s costly tariff taxes,” Schumer said.

According to a summary of the legislation from Schumer’s team, the bill also would seek to undo the statutory measures Trump has leaned on to implement these tariffs.

The measure is unlikely to go anywhere in the GOP-controlled Senate, however, and it almost certainly would not garner sufficient support to overcome a potential Trump veto. 

Still, the legislation provides Democrats with another avenue to attack their GOP colleagues heading into the midterms. Democrats are making addressing cost of living concerns and the rising costs of consumer goods a central tenet of their pitch to voters, while casting Trump as increasingly out of touch. 

A recent analysis by the nonpartisan Yale Budget Lab found the current tariff regime will cost the average American household about $1,100 annually. 

“While inflation rages, families struggle to pay their bills, and small businesses close,” Schumer said in a statement, “Trump — detached from reality — continues his bluster on the global stage, doubling down on a chaotic trade war that has meant only pain for American families, farmers, and manufacturers.”

The latest tariffs on Canada could be particularly potent in several key Senate races, such as Maine, Michigan, and Alaska, where trade with Canada is a central part of the economy.  Canada’s retaliatory response has also added another layer of political and economic fallout.

In Maine, for instance, Democrat Troy Jackson, who is seeking to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, wrote that “Trump restarting this trade war” is a “betrayal to our working families and broad tariffs act as a direct tax on Mainers.”

Collins — who is trying to stave off Jackson’s accusations that she is too aligned with Trump — has urged the U.S. and Canada to “come back to the negotiating table” and has openly called out the Trump White House.

“The Administration must consider the negative impact tariffs would have on Maine businesses, communities, and families and work to reach a fair agreement with our Canadian neighbors,” Collins wrote recently on social media.

In the past, Trump’s sweeping tariff initiatives have been the subject of bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill. 

Last year, the Senate successfully adopted multiple measures to end Trump’s various tariff planks — including on Canada and Brazil — with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats in voting to rein in the White House. 

Schumer’s new bill is cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is also a cosponsor.