U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered sweeping tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China, demanding they stanch the flow of fentanyl – and illegal immigrants in the case of Canada and Mexico – into the United States, kicking off a trade war that could dent global growth and reignite inflation.
Mexico and Canada, the top two U.S. trading partners, immediately vowed retaliatory tariffs, while China said it would challenge Trump’s move at the World Trade Organization and take other “countermeasures.”
In three executive orders, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and most Canadian imports and 10% on goods from China, starting on Tuesday.
He vowed to keep the duties in place until what he described as a national emergency over fentanyl, a deadly opioid, and illegal immigration to the U.S. ends. The White House provided no other parameters for determining what might satisfy Trump’s demands.
Responding to concerns raised by oil refiners and Midwestern states, Trump imposed only a 10% duty on energy products from Canada, with Mexican energy imports facing the full 25% tariff.
Canada will hit back at US tariffs with 25% levies of its own on select American goods, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday, February 1.
“Canada will be responding to the US trade action with 25% tariffs against CA$155 billion [US$106 billion] worth of American goods,” he said in a dramatic tone as he warned of a fracture in longstanding Canada-US ties.
The first round of tariffs would target CA$30 billion worth of US goods on Tuesday followed by further tariffs on CA$125 billion worth of products in three weeks.
“We’re certainly not looking to escalate. But we will stand up for Canada, for Canadians, for Canadian jobs,” Trudeau said.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Saturday ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the U.S. decision to slap 25% tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico, as a trade war broke out between the two neighbors.
In a lengthy post on X, Sheinbaum said her government sought dialogue rather than confrontation with its top trade partner to the north, but that Mexico had been forced to respond in kind.
