The Trump administration said Friday that American tariffs on the assets of Canada, Mexico and China would take effect on Saturday, and the president later offered a series of nebulous details about his plans.
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president will implement a 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico each, plus a 10 percent rate on China.
Trump gave journalists in the Oval office a vague image of how their plan could take shape, saying:
- Tariffs will include oil and gas or “around” February 18.
- The oil on oil “probably” would decrease 10 percent, but it was not clear if the lowest tasks would apply from the beginning.
- There would be “many rates” in steel and aluminum.
- The “finally” tariffs would include copper, although that “will take a little longer.”
- He was not worried about the reaction of financial markets to his plans.
The comments occurred after a day and forthy messages around the tariff people on both sides of the sides of the edges.
The earlier Friday, Leavitt said Trump still planned to take measures on his tariff plan on Saturday and dismissed a reuters report that tariffs would not begin until March 1.
“I saw that report and it is false,” said the press secretary.
“I was alone with the president at the Oval office and I can confirm that tomorrow, the deadline of February 1 that President Trump put in his place in a statement several weeks ago., 25 percent of tariffs on Canada and a rate of the rate of the 10 percent over China. “
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Ottawa was working with the United States to try to stop any tariff.
“Nobody, on both sides of the border, wants to see US tariffs on Canadian goods,” he wrote in X.
“Today I met with our Council of Canada-Ee. UU.
Leavitt did not offer details about possible exemptions to tariffs in his comments on Friday.
“I don’t have an update or reading for you about exemptions. But those rates will be for public consumption in approximately 24 hours, tomorrow, so you can read them then.”
The decision to impose tariffs is to seriously damage diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries, which are generally close allies. There are significant implications for the main industries, such as energy and the car, which have been prospered for a long time under a variety of free trade agreements.
Yes Ottawa retaliation with their own rates As promisedIt would be equivalent to a commercial war, which could mean higher prices and losses of jobs throughout the country.
CBC News has contacted the prime minister’s office to obtain more comments.
- This Sunday, Field check through It is to do: What questions do you have about Donald Trump’s tariffs about Canadian goods? Complete this form and could appear in the program or that your comment reads in the air.
Billón dollar commercial relationship
The commercial relationship between Canada and the United States is huge, to say it gently. According to Ottawa, approximately $ 3.6 billion of products went to the border every day in 2023, according to Ottawa, which makes the relationship be worth a billion dollars a year.
Of all goods, Canada exports to other countries, more than three quarters go to their southern neighbor. The automotive and agricultural sectors are key, but oil and gas lead the package: approximately 80 percent of Canada’s oil and 60 percent of their natural gas go to the United States.
The measure also means that Canadian companies will have more difficulty selling American importers, since these importers will have to pay the rates. Canadian exporters will need to reduce prices and sacrifice profits, compensate for the tax or try to find a mosaic of new buyers to compensate US businesses.
On Friday, Leavitt said that Trump was moving for tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China because “the fentanyl that has been seized on the southern border in the last two years only has the potential to kill dozens of millions of American millions.”
Around 108,000 people in the United States died from an overdose of drugs in 2022, according to the EE. UU disease control centers. The United States has decreased, decreasing by approximately 14 percent from June 2023 to June 2024.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford warned that tariffs could cost up to half a million jobs in your provinceWhere the extensive automatic assembly industry is closely linked to the land of the United States and Labrador Prime Minister Andrew Furey, said Trump’s measure could cost thousands of jobs more there, while BC’s prime minister David EBY Almost $ 70 billion in economic activity in the west for 2028.
Trump sees tariffs, taxes to one country on the foreign goods of another, as a way of protecting US manufacturing and strengthening the economy in general. He has repeatedly said that foreign countries pay tariffs when, in fact, they are paid by American importers.
Those companies Then, those costs generally pass their customers in the form of higher prices, so economists have warned Ultimately, it could be the public that pays the price In a tariff war.
The Trump 2.0 administration is reimagining the United States as a protectionist nation and ‘America First’. Some experts say that it is a new and dangerous era in the foreign policy of the United States, which threatens the interests of the allies, such as Canada. But many Trump supporters are 100 percent aboard that.
When Trump initially threatened to impose ratesHe said they would be an answer to what he called Inaction from Canada and Mexico about illegal drugs and migrants entering the United States, although the authorities have said less than one percent of fentanyl or migrants entering the United States They come from Canada.
Even so, the Canadian government joined A $ 1.3 billion plan to increase border security In December to try to appease the incoming president. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is in his last months of power, had promised “robust, rapid” and “very strong” retaliation measures if Trump fulfilled his threats.
Trump has also said that tariffs are a way of pressing the United States trade deficit with Canada, which has incorrectly described as a subsidy. He has also said that he would Use the economic force to make Canada in state 51.
For decades, most goods have fluid without tariffs between Canada, Mexico and the United States due to free trade agreements, the most recent of which were the Canadian-Mexico (Cusma) agreement and, its predecessor, North American Free Commercial Agreement (NAFTA). Even when US tariffs are in their place for other countries, they are often far from 25 percent, 2.5 percent in passenger cars either six percent in golf shoesFor example.
On Sunday, Colombia agreed to accept flights that transport deported migrants from the United States after Trump threatened to hit that country with his own set of rates to initially direct those flights. The confrontation served as a warning about the disposition of the president of the United States to punish the nations that interfere with their plans.
