PROVIDENCE — In response to President Trump’s tariffs, a Rhode Island legislator is urging Governor Dan J. McKee to tap powers granted by the state’s 1663 Royal Charter to create “free trade zones” and skirt tariffs.
Representative Joseph M. McNamara, a Warwick Democrat, wrote to McKee, a fellow Democrat, on Wednesday, saying King Charles II granted Rhode Island governors the power to “hold commerce and trade, with such inhabitants of other colonies peaceably.”
McNamara, a former Rhode Island Democratic Party chairman, urged the state’s Commerce Corporation to pursue trade agreements with international car manufacturers and to declare the Quonset Industrial Park as a free trade zone. And he said Rhode Island T.F. Green International is building a warehouse that would be ideal for duty-free importing.
“Our state has a long history of resisting unfair authoritative trade mandates and taxes,” McNamara wrote, referring to the burning of the HMS Gaspee, a British customs schooner, in Narragansett Bay in 1772.
But Rhode Island Commerce spokesman Matthew Touchette said the whole state has been designated a foreign trade zone, also known as a free trade zone, since 2018. And while that designation provides logistical and financial advantages for businesses operating here, it does not allow the state to avoid federal tariffs, impose its own tariffs, or create independent trade policies, because all customs rules and tariff rates are governed by federal law.
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In an interview, McNamara acknowledged that his idea would likely be challenged as unconstitutional.
“But certainly, in light of today’s voluminous litigation going on related to the US Constitution, this to me is an easy lift,” he said. “If anyone objects, as the president would say, ‘I’ll see you in court.‘”
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McNamara also acknowledged that Trump on Wednesday abruptly reversed course on steep global tariffs, pausing the punishing levies on nearly 60 countries for 90 days, while maintaining tariffs on China.
“I am not saying this is a direct result,” McNamara said. But he noted, tongue in cheek, that Trump paused those tariffs two hours after he issued his news release about the Royal Charter and free trade zones.
“I know two things,” McNamara said. “(Trump) is a fan of monarchs, and King Charles II is in that category. And he is a fan of old laws and statutes, such as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.”
McNamara noted that last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom directed his administration to pursue new international trade deals to exempt California products from any retaliatory tariffs.
Newsom, a Democrat, posted a message on X, saying, “California is here and ready to talk. We will not sit idly by during Trump’s tariff war. We make up 14% of the US GDP. We’re the 5th largest economy in the world. We’re not scared to use our market power to fight back against the largest tax hike of our lifetime.”
McNamara said that if any state is going to pursue independent trade deals, it should be Rhode Island because of the powers granted by its Royal Charter, which the king granted to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
He said he envisions expanding the import of foreign cars at the Quonset Business Park by striking individual contracts with companies such as Volvo, Saab, and Kia. He maintained that a free trade zone designation would allow Rhode Island to avoid applying any Trump tariffs to those cars.
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Also, McNamara said the Port of Providence has been underutilized and would be “booming” if it became “the first Free Trade Port on the East Coast.”
“The additional revenue will be a tremendous boost to the economy of our state and once again bring prosperity to all of our citizens,” he wrote in his letter to the governor.
McNamara, who famously described Rhode Island as the “Calamari Comeback State” during the 2020 Democratic National Convention, said one downside of Trump’s tariffs is the impact on the sale of calamari, the state’s official appetizer. He said Rhode Island sells squid to Taiwan, and Trump’s tariffs apply to that trade because it is considered part of China. “It’s awful,” he said.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.