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New tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China went into effect Tuesday as part of President Trump’s effort to use trade measures to halt the flow of fentanyl into America – and Canada has already retaliated.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products came into force at 12:01 a.m., a month after both nations were initially able to negotiate a pause on the implementation.
A 10% tariff on Chinese imports Trump imposed last month also doubled to 20% on Tuesday.
Trump implemented the levies after declaring the fentanyl crisis in America to be a “national emergency,” and using his authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose stiff tariffs with the goal of forcing Chinese officials to rein in the flow of precursor chemicals from China to criminal cartels that use fentanyl to manufacture deadly drugs for the US market.
The president has argued that China, Mexico and Canada haven’t done enough to crack down on deadly and illicit fentanyl imports to justify pausing the tariffs.
“Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. “A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China.”
The president has also indicated that he aims to address the country’s trade imbalances and get more factories to relocate to the US through his tariff plan, charging that the country has been taken advantage of by its trading partners.
On Monday, Trump told reporters that there was “no room left for Mexico or for Canada” to avoid the new tariffs, which will tax Canadian energy products such as oil and electricity at a lower 10% rate.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Monday that he planned to advise the president that Canada and Mexico “have done a good job on the border, but they haven’t done enough on fentanyl.”
“We really need to save American lives. And the president really cares about saving American lives. So they’ve got to get the fentanyl down,” Lutnick said during a CNN interview. “And that’s really attacking the cartels and getting this down.”
Stock markets tumbled on the eve of the tariffs, with Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 650 points, the S&P 500 dipping about 105 points and the Nasdaq Composite plummeting nearly 500 points.
Experts fear prices of food and automobiles, among other goods, will surge as a result of the tariffs.
The tariffs will apply to about $1.4 trillion in Mexican, Canadian and Chinese imports, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
The nonprofit estimates that the levies will reduce long-run GDP in the US by 0.3%.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced late Monday night that Canada “will respond with 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion of American goods” as a result of Trump’s action.
The prime minister indicated that retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods will start “immediately” and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion on American products will come “in 21 days’ time.”
“Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs. Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship,” Trudeau said.
The president has dismissed concern about tariffs fueling inflation, pointing to low rates of increase in consumer costs during his first-term trade standoffs, particularly with China.
“We don’t need the products that they have,” Trump said on Jan. 30 of Canadian and Mexico imports — adding a day later: “There could be some temporary short-term disruption, and people will understand that.”
China revealed Tuesday it would slap additional tariffs of up to 15% on imports of key US farm products, including chicken, pork, soy and beef that would begin March 10 in response to Trump’s hiking tariffs on the rival country.
The Commerce Ministry in China said US-grown chicken, wheat, corn and cotton will face an increased tariff of 15% and sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruit, vegetables and dairy products will jump by 10%.
The Asian country also added 15 companies to its unreliable entities list that could stop them from participating in China-related import or export activities and from investing new resources into the nation.
Trump also announced Monday that he would be adopting agricultural tariffs on April 2, which a White House official told The Post was a reference to his looming initiative to slap “reciprocal” levies on other countries, including European allies and Japan.
Additional reporting by David Propper.
With Post wires.
