United States President Donald Trump has reiterated his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico from Saturday.
The White House confirmed on Friday that tariffs of 25 percent on Mexico and Canada — and 10 percent on China — will go into effect by the weekend.
“The February 1 deadline that President Trump put into place at a statement several weeks ago continues,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, later adding: “These are promises made, promises kept by the president.”
The White House also denied an earlier report from the Reuters news agency saying the tariffs would be delayed until March 1, calling it “false”.
The governments of Canada and Mexico, two of the US’s biggest trading partners, have been bracing for the tariffs since Trump first announced them after his election victory in November.
On Friday, both governments addressed the looming price hikes in public statements. At an advisory council meeting on Canada-US relations, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was at a critical moment but would respond to Trump’s moves.
“We’re ready with a response — a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response. It’s not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act,” Trudeau said, adding that all options were on the table.
Canada sends 75 percent of all its goods and services exports to the US, and its economy would be badly hit by Trump’s promised tariffs.
“I won’t sugarcoat it. Our nation could be facing difficult times in the coming days and weeks,” Trudeau said.
“I know Canadians might be anxious and worried, but I want them to know the federal government and, indeed, all orders of government have their backs.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also teased her country’s response on Friday.
“We will always defend the dignity of our people, respect for our sovereignty and a dialogue as equals without subordination,” she said.
“We will wait, as I have always said, with a cool head when taking decisions. We are prepared, and we maintain this dialogue.”
Lower tariff for oil
Trump also said that tariffs on oil and gas will come on February 18. He didn’t say which countries the US would target.
“We’re going to put tariffs on oil and gas,” Trump told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office. “That’ll happen fairly soon, I think around the 18th of February.”
Canada supplies nearly 60 percent of US crude oil imports, according to the US government’s own figures.
“I’m probably going to reduce the tariff a little bit on that,” Trump said. “We think we’re going to bring it down to 10 percent.”
Earlier on Thursday, while speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he “may or may not” exclude oil from the tariffs and would decide “probably tonight”.
Trump said the US would be able to make up for any decline in imports “very quickly”.
“Because we don’t need the products they have. We have all the oil you need,” he said.
Al Jazeera correspondent Patty Culhane explained that, while Trump frames tariffs as a tool to protect domestic industries, they could instead end up hurting US consumers, particularly when it comes to oil prices.
“If Canada decides to put tariffs on the oil it exports into the US, you could see gas prices really skyrocket,” Culhane said.
“Trump likes to say that other countries pay for the tariffs, that they pay the US government. That’s not the case. The people who import the products have to pay the US government, so they raise prices on consumers.”
Leveraging tariffs
Trump has also sought to use the tariffs as leverage to achieve foreign policy goals.
When Trump announced the tariffs against Canada and Mexico in November in a post on Truth Social, for instance, he said his goal was to better control the US’s “ridiculous Open Borders”.
He called on both countries to join him in restricting traffic across the border. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
Government officials from both Canada and Mexico have since sought to reassure the Trump administration that border security would be tightened.
Trump floated Saturday as the start date for the tariffs shortly after his inauguration on January 20.
Trump also said at the time that he was considering a 10 percent tariff on China to pressure Beijing to halt the supply of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Trump said on Thursday that he was “thinking about” doing something in relation to China because fentanyl was “causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths”.
“So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that, and we are in the process of doing that,” he said.
Beijing has warned against a return to protectionism and called for “win-win” solutions to the trade-related differences between the two countries.
