US President Donald Trump announced that his administration is planning to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, effective February 1, The Hill reported.
When asked about his rationale for imposing tariffs on the two nations while signing executive orders, Trump responded, “We are thinking in terms of 25 percent on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing vast numbers of people… to come in, and fentanyl to come in.”
When asked about the timeline, he said, “I think we’ll do it on Feb. 1.”
During the final days of the 2024 campaign, Trump had threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico, which is the top trade partner with the US, unless the Mexican government reduced the flow of migrants at the southern border.
He also threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and China. He has indicated that he intends to double down on the use of tariffs, claiming that the US will benefit financially, even as experts warn it would amount to a tax on consumers.
On January 9, Trump highlighted how tariffs on Canada would eventually be imposed and brought attention to the “massive deficits” the US has with Canada.
While addressing a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump justified making Canada the 51st state by saying, “I called them Governor Trudeau because they should be the 51st state, really. It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it. They pay lower taxes. They have virtually no military. They have a very small military. They pay less than 1 percent. They’re about the lowest payer in NATO. They’re supposed to pay much more. They haven’t been paying a lot. They have a lot of problems.”
He said that the Canadian people found the idea “very interesting.” “It was stated pretty strongly a couple of weeks ago about Canada, and people laughed. Now they’re all saying, well, it’s very interesting.”
Justifying the American point of view, Trump said, “From the standpoint of the United States, we’re subsidizing Canada—USD 200 and USD 250 billion a year. We have massive deficits. They’ve taken about 20 percent of our car business. I’d rather do it here. We could put tariffs on them. We don’t have tariffs on them yet, but that will happen.”
He mentioned that Canada has taken about 20 percent of America’s car business. “I’d rather have it done in Detroit or have it done in South Carolina or any other state that does cars. And we have a lot of them. We don’t need Canada for that.”
“We don’t need Canada for lumber because we have big forests that we have… we don’t need anything. We don’t need their fuel. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need anything that they have. And I said to Trudeau, I said, why are we subsidizing you $200 and $250 billion a year? He said, I really don’t know. And I said, well, I don’t know either. I said, what would happen to Canada if we didn’t? He said Canada would be obliterated if that happened. I said, then Canada should be a 51st state. And that’s where we are now”. Trump noted.