Washington — The House voted on Wednesday to overturn President Trump’s tariffs on Canada after six Republicans sided with nearly all Democrats to rebuke one pillar of the president’s trade agenda. 

The Democratic measure to roll back the levies passed in a 219 to 211 vote. 

However, the resolution’s passage is largely symbolic, since it could be vetoed by the president if it clears the Senate, and it did not pass the House with a veto-proof majority. The upper chamber voted twice last year to block Mr. Trump from imposing tariffs on Canada, with four Republicans joining Democrats to approve the measures. 

Its passage comes after GOP Reps. Kevin Kiley of California, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska voted with Democrats on Tuesday to sink a procedural vote that would have barred lawmakers from overturning the president’s sweeping tariffs through July. For months, House GOP leaders have blocked lawmakers from forcing votes on Mr. Trump’s tariff authority, but the ban on challenging the levies expired in January. 

Republican Reps. Dan Newhouse of Washington, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Jeff Hurd of Colorado, Kiley, Massie and Bacon broke with the president in Wednesday’s vote on an issue that could have political ramifications in the November midterm elections. Poll after poll has shown that Americans largely disapprove of the sweeping tariffs. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, could only afford one defection with his paper-thin majority. 

“This is life with a small majority,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday night. 

Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the sole Democrat to oppose the measure. 

Moments before the vote wrapped up, Mr. Trump pushed Republicans not to break with him on tariffs, warning that any lawmaker who votes against his tariff policies “will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!”

“TARIFFS have given us Economic and National Security, and no Republican should be responsible for destroying this privilege,” he said in a Truth Social post.

Mr. Trump’s warning stands in contrast to comments Johnson made to reporters minutes before the vote. When asked if Mr. Trump would be upset with Republicans who voted against tariffs, Johnson said he had just come from an event at the White House and Mr. Trump was “not upset.”  

“He understands what’s going on. It’s not going to affect or change his policy. He can veto these things if they come to him,” Johnson said. 

The measure, introduced by Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, would terminate the national emergency declared by Mr. Trump last year to justify tariffs on Canada. Mr. Trump accused Canada of failing to address illegal migration and drug trafficking. Since then, Mr. Trump has continued to threaten additional tariffs against Canada as relations between the two allies sour. 

The president has also threatened or imposed higher tariffs on dozens of other countries to resolve what he views as unfair trade practices. Democrats could soon force votes challenging tariffs on other countries. 

In November, the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Mr. Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs and its decision in the dispute could come any day. 

Johnson has argued that Congress shouldn’t intervene in the process or challenge Mr. Trump’s economic strategy. 

“The tariffs have been a tool that the president has used very effectively to level the playing field and put America back on top, and I think it’s wrong for Congress to step in the middle of that. Also, remember, this is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Johnson said in an interview Wednesday on Fox Business. “So, I just think we need to pause Congress’s consideration of this and not get in the way of the president and what he’s trying to achieve.” 

During floor debate on Wednesday, Democrats maintained that Mr. Trump’s trade war has been disastrous for Americans and questioned why Republicans have ceded congressional authority to the White House. 

“Will you vote to lower the cost of living for the American families, or will you keep prices high out of loyalty to one person, Donald J. Trump?” Meeks asked. 

Republicans accused Democrats of downplaying the fentanyl crisis and argued tariffs have been an effective strategy to get countries to act in favor of U.S. priorities. 

“This is Democrats trying to ignore that there is a fentanyl crisis,” Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida said. “Tariffs get more attention than strongly worded letters, and millions of Americans’ lives are being saved because President Trump has declared this national emergency and is actively forcing our neighbors, like Canada, to act.” 

BILZEN-HOESELT, Belgium — Leaders from across the European Union are meeting Thursday in a Belgian castle as the 27-nation bloc faces antagonism from U.S. President Donald Trump, strong-arm economic tactics from China and hybrid threats from Russia — challenges that have prompted a rethink of Europe’s approach to diplomacy and trade.

“We all know we must change course, and we all know the direction,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told a meeting with some European leaders on Wednesday. “Yet it sometimes feels like we’re standing on the bridge of the ship staring at the horizon without being able to touch the helm.”

But there are competing visions of how the EU must change. Thursday’s meeting is to shape proposals for another summit in late March.

As leaders are set to walk across a drawbridge to the 16th-century Alden Biesen castle, the fault lines in the battle for Europe’s future are becoming clear.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lead a wing of the bloc calling for deregulation, rebooting Europe’s relationship with Washington and forging trade deals like the recent one struck with the Mercosur nations of South America.

“We must deregulate every sector,” Merz said Wednesday.

But they are at odds with France.

One key issue is how much of the EU’s defense spending should be restricted to buying from EU arms companies. French President Emmanuel Macron argues that EU companies should get priority, while Merz and Meloni say purchases should be from both foreign and European firms.

Macron has urged the EU to protect its industries overall via applying “European preference” in key sectors like cleantech, chemicals, steel, the car industry and defense.

“We need to protect our industry. The Chinese do it, the Americans do it too,” Macron said in an interview with several newspapers including Le Monde and The Financial Times published Tuesday.

Without some European preference on strategic sectors, “Europeans will be swept aside. This is defensive, but it is essential, because we are facing unfair competitors who no longer respect the rules of the World Trade Organization,” Macron said.

EU leaders will also debate new financial instruments to protect the bloc in a global trading system rocked by Trump’s blitzkrieg of tariffs and China’s restricting of critical mineral exports.

Macron is renewing his call for the EU to be able to borrow money, which he described as “Eurobonds for the future” that would provide an opportunity “to challenge the hegemony of the dollar.”

Merz and Meloni are avoiding the economic revitalization and modernization strategy called for by Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank: deregulation, diversification of trade ties, deep investment in infrastructure, and regulatory integration and simplification across the bloc.

On Thursday, Germany and Italy will call on leaders to act by cutting EU red tape, strengthening the single market and “ensuring an ambitious trade policy based on shared rules and a level playing field.”

That echoes the economic security focus of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who like Merz is a leading figure in the European People’s Party, which is the largest bloc in the European Parliament and claims 13 heads of EU states as members.

In speeches on Wednesday in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, Belgium, von der Leyen said economic strength underlies everything else.

“Our power on the global stage depends greatly on our strength on the economic front,” she said.

Citizens across the bloc are hungry for a stronger EU and a more unified, stronger and ambitious leadership amid military threats, economic pressures and climate instability, according to an official EU poll, Eurobarometer.

“There has never been a better time for European leaders, national political leaders, to actually leverage on these European citizens’ demand for greater European action,” said Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at the HEC Paris business school.

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Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.