Senate pushes back on tariffs

The US Senate quietly passed legislation on Thursday that would lower trade barriers on hundreds of items made in China.

With no debate, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would cut or eliminate tariffs on toasters, chemicals and roughly 1,660 other items made outside the United States. Nearly half of those items are produced in China, according to a Reuters analysis of government records.

The White House has not publicly taken a position on the so-called miscellaneous tariff bill, which has now passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously. The two chambers need to resolve minor differences before they can send the legislation to Trump to sign.

Supporters of the bill have said it would boost the economy by getting rid of tariffs set up to protect industries that no longer exist in the United States. The National Association of Manufacturers has said US businesses pay $1 million a day on such import duties.

"It makes no sense because it is a direct and punishing tax on making things in America and for creating jobs in America," the trade group's president, Jay Timmons, said in a prepared statement celebrating the bill's passage.

Among the beneficiaries are companies that have moved production offshore. US President Donald Trump on Thursday visited Illinois and Iowa, the nation's leading soybean-producing states. While Trump said his use of tariffs and threats of tariffs have brought countries to the negotiating table, US farm groups are against it.

Trump arrived in Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday morning with his daughter Ivanka. Speaking on a workforce development roundtable at the Northeast Iowa Community College in nearby Peosta, Trump talked about his tax cuts, unemployment rates, the cost of prescription drugs and trade disputes.

He criticized "worst-ever made" past trade deals reached between the US and other countries. "We don't have one trade deal that's good," Trump said.

He again singled out China for what he said was an attack on the US farm belt. On Wednesday, Trump leveled the same accusation at China.

Trump's visit came one day after announcing a surprise agreement with the European Union to increase its purchases of soybeans as part of package that could potentially allow it to avoid Trump's threatened tariffs on automobiles, if the two sides can agree on across-the-board reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers.

No deal was signed with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during his meeting with Trump on Wednesday.

The administration also announced $12 billion in emergency aid for farmers this week. While some farm groups applauded the handout, many — farmers, farm associations and members of Trump's party in Congress — criticized it.

That criticism continued on Thursday from an Iowa congressman, and US farm groups announced a multimillion-dollar campaign against tariffs.

Representative David Young, a Republican member of the House Agriculture Subcommittee, criticized the tariffs and the aid to farmers.

"I'm not for bailouts. I'm not happy about that. And a lot of farmers aren't as well," Young told CNN ahead of Trump's visit to Iowa later in the day.

Also on Thursday, Trump's top trade official, Robert Lighthizer, was criticized by Republican and Democratic lawmakers after he told them in a hearing that the administration is not currently considering providing federal aid to small businesses, manufacturers or any other sector aside from farmers who might be hurt by the trade war.

The nonprofit National Farmers Union (NFU), which is backed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and major commodity groups like the National Pork Producers Council, announced a $2.5 million four-month campaign aimed at showcasing how the tariffs are causing pain among US farmers and manufacturers.

The campaign's main advertisement will run on Fox News, CNBC and CNN and in local television and radio markets in Iowa, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The NFU estimates that the tariffs foreign countries have placed on American farm products — in retaliation against Trump's various tariffs — have already cost US agricultural interests $13 billion.

After Iowa, Trump went to Granite City, Illinois, across the Mississippi from St. Louis, where he visited a steel mill that the White House said benefited from his tough trade moves against China and other steel exporters. Granite City Works restarted two of its furnaces and hired hundreds as a result of the tariffs the administration placed on steel.