Trump Puts Tariffs on Canada, China; Delays Move on Mexico

President Donald Trump said throughout the 2024 campaign that, if the U.S. didn’t get some help stemming the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl from China, Mexico and Canada that he would impose stiff tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. from those countries.

On Saturday, he made good on the threat, signing executive orders establishing 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods and 10% on imports from China.

The move paid off Monday morning, at least partly, when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico would send 10,000 National Guard troops to the border.

In exchange, Sheinbaum posted on X (formerly Twitter), Trump agreed to delay the tariffs on all Mexican goods imported to the United States for at least a month. Trump acknowledged the agreement in an announcement of his own.

The tariffs on Canada and China are set to start Tuesday. Both countries, who are among the United States’ biggest trading partners, have threatened retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

China said it would “take corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests,” while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used a speech over the weekend to urge his citizens not to buy  American-made products.

He also disagrees with Trump that Canada is the problem with either illegal immigration or fentanyl.

“Less than 1% of fentanyl and less than 1% of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada,” Trudeau said.

Over the weekend, President Trump announced that heavy tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China would take effect Tuesday, raising the specter of a disruptive trade war that could damage the economies of all three nations and dramatically raise costs for U.S. consumers.

Trump signed executive orders placing duties of 25% on imported goods from Mexico and Canada, with a 10% rate on Canadian energy products. The tariffs would have violated a 2020 free trade pact that Trump himself signed and celebrated as “the fairest, most balanced and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law.”

Trump also imposed a 10% tax on all imports from China.

Trump said the tariffs were necessary because the three countries haven’t done enough to stop the flow of unauthorized immigrants and drugs into the United States. The White House insisted the tariffs will remain in place “until the crisis is alleviated.” Trump repeatedly said that “nothing” would stop him from imposing the tariffs.

Shortly after Trump’s tariff announcement on Saturday, the leaders of Mexico and Canada announced they would respond by slapping retaliatory taxes on U.S. goods. China also said it would “take corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests.”

In a speech, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged his citizens not to buy American-made products and announced two waves of tariffs against the United States. He questioned Trump’s claims that Canada is to blame for high levels of immigration and America’s fentanyl crisis. “Less than 1% of fentanyl and less than 1% of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada,” Trudeau said.

In announcing the tariffs on Mexico, a document posted to the White House web site said “Mexican drug trafficking organizations have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico.”

In a post on X last weekend, Sheinbaum said officials have seized more than 40 tons of drugs, including 20 million doses of fentanyl, and has arrested more than 10,000 people linked to organized crime.”

She criticized the U.S. for its high levels of drug consumption, urging Trump to do more to combat drug sales, and linked Mexico’s violence to the thousands of firearms smuggling south from the United States each year.

Sheinbaum initially threatened tariffs of her own, but then reached the agreement with Trump Monday.

Speaking to reporters as he disembarked from Air Force One Sunday, Trump acknowledged that Americans could “feel some pain” from the tariffs.

“We may have in the short term, a little pain, and people understand that,” he said Sunday. “But long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world.”

Economists appear to agree with him about the short-term pain.

“I’m expecting them to raise prices for goods,” Bill Adams, a senior vice president and chief economist for Comerica. “Tariffs are intended to make the price that manufacturers can sell their goods in the United States higher. If you’re running a manufacturing business … tariffs could help you.

“For consumers the net effect is going to be higher inflation in the near term,” Adams added. “I think for Americans who work in manufacturing (might) benefit more from higher incomes or more plentiful jobs than the effect of higher prices for other consumers. I think it’s harder to see where the benefit comes.”

Previous articleStock Market Reacts to U.S. Tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China
Next articleChina Hits Back at U.S. Tariffs
Brad Kadrich
Brad Kadrich is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience, most recently as an editor/content coach for the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers and Hometown Life, managing 10 newspapers in Wayne and Oakland counties. He was born in Detroit, grew up in Warren and spent 15 years in the U.S. Air Force, primarily producing base newspapers and running media and community relations operations.