President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that his plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico will go into effect this weekend, stating, “We don’t need what they have.” “That’s coming on the 1st, Saturday,” Trump told at a meeting with reporters in the Oval Office.
As he said this, he appeared to dispel any uncertainties about his commitment to imposing tariffs on the U.S.’s neighboring countries due to concerns over illegal immigration and dangerous drug imports. The 78-year-old president also said that he “may or may not” exclude petroleum imports from the new tariffs. It seems Trump is in no mood to give any relaxations.
Trump’s Tariff Moves
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“We’re going to make that determination probably tonight, on oil. Because they send us oil. We’ll see. It depends what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly, which they don’t.”
Trump first proposed 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico In November, a move initially thought to be a negotiating strategy. In response, the leaders of both countries quickly assured him they would strengthen border security.
“Look, Canada and Mexico, they have never been good to us on trade. They have treated us very unfairly on trade. And we will be able to make that up very quickly, because we don’t need the products that they have,” the president said Thursday.
“We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories. In oil, we have more than anybody and we don’t need anybody’s trees.”
Trump added: “We have to free up some of the tree areas that we have. We have great lumber in this country. We have to free them up environmentally, which I can do very quickly.”
No Mercy from Trump
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During his first term, the 45th and 47th president often used threats of tariffs to challenge foreign trade policies he considered unfair. This included threatening to impose taxes on French wine to protect U.S. tech companies and escalating duties on China to push for a significant trade agreement.
In 2018, Trump spearheaded the renegotiation of the 1994 NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, leading to the creation of the USMCA deal, which introduced labor standards aimed at preventing the undermining of U.S. workers.
“We don’t need what they have,” the president insisted Thursday.
“And for us to be subsidizing Canada to the tune of $175 billion a year and subsidizing Mexico to the tune of $250 billion, $300 billion a year — and Mexico is a method of China sending in its product.”
Trump added that he is still contemplating imposing new tariffs on China, following his earlier suggestion of a 10 percent additional levy.
“With China I’m also thinking about something, because they’re sending fentanyl into our country and because of that, they’re causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths,” he said.
“So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that and we’re in the process of doing that. We’ll make that determination when it’s going to be, but China has to stop sending fentanyl into our country and killing our people.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last updated in August, fentanyl, primarily produced in China and smuggled into the U.S. via land borders and the international mail system, has caused the deaths of at least 281,000 Americans over the past four years.
