Canadian officials said they are prepared for President Donald Trump's sweeping 25% tariff, which will go into effect on Feb. 1, against Canada and Mexico.
During his campaigning for the second presidency, Trump spoke publicly about his plans to impose 2000% tariffs on imported cars, EV policy changes and allowing car loan interest deduction for only vehicles made in the United States.
At the signing event for several executive orders in the Oval Office, Trump addressed his plans for the tariffs, reported the Associated Press.
Trump said his tariff will go into effect "Feb. 1," in a televised segment available on C-SPAN. "I think we'll do it in February," he said.
"Well, we're thinking in terms of 25% of Mexico and Canada," Trump said.
The president said the reason behind the tariffs has to do with Canada and Mexico "allowing vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in."
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said to the Associated Press that they "will continue to work on preventing tariffs" but said they are also "working on retaliation."
The announcement from Canadian officials comes on the heels of the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who resigned from her role due to her disagreement with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over how to handle Trump's upcoming tariffs.
Last week, Trump announced his intentions to start a new government agency called the "External Revenue Service" to manage tariffs, duties and revenue collected from foreign sources.
Analysts said Trump's tariffs would hit U.S. car buyers and could possibly "tank the industry."
Insiders said the best way to avoid Trump's tariffs is to buy the merchandise that will incur a higher cost now–before the tariffs hit consumers' wallets.
