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Trump’s New Tariffs Target Canada, Mexico, China

Published

5 months ago

February 1, 2025

Editor

President Donald Trump is set to impose fresh tariffs on Saturday on major US trading partners — Canada, Mexico, and China — threatening disruption across supply chains from energy to automobiles.

Trump has promised 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, citing their alleged failure to curb illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the US.

He has also pledged a 10 per cent tariff on imports from China, the world’s second-largest economy, accusing it of involvement in synthetic opioid production.

Trump has frequently expressed his enthusiasm for tariffs and has hinted that Saturday’s action could be the first step in further trade disputes.

This week, the US president vowed to impose duties on the European Union.

He has also promised tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminium, copper, pharmaceuticals, as well as oil and gas.

Trump returned to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for the weekend with no public events on his official schedule. On Saturday morning, he headed to the golf course.

Canadian public broadcaster CBC reported on Saturday that Ottawa has been informed to expect 25 per cent across-the-board US tariffs, although energy imports would face a lower rate of 10 per cent.

These tariffs are expected to take effect on Tuesday, according to CBC.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to hold a press conference at around 6:00 pm (0000 GMT), two Canadian government sources told AFP.
Growth Concerns
Imposing sweeping tariffs on three key US trading partners carries risks for Trump, who secured victory in the November election partly due to public dissatisfaction over the cost of living.

Higher import costs would likely “dampen consumer spending and business investment,” said EY chief economist Gregory Daco.

He expects inflation to rise by 0.7 percentage points in the first quarter of this year due to the tariffs, before gradually easing.

“Rising trade policy uncertainty will heighten financial market volatility and strain the private sector, despite the administration’s pro-business rhetoric,” he added.

Trump’s supporters have downplayed fears that tariff hikes will fuel inflation, suggesting his planned tax cuts and deregulation measures could instead boost economic growth.

Democratic lawmakers have criticised Trump’s plans, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stating on Friday: “I am concerned these new tariffs will further drive up costs for American consumers.”

Canada and Mexico are major suppliers of US agricultural products, with imports from each country amounting to tens of billions of dollars per year.

Tariffs would also severely impact the auto industry, as US light vehicle imports from Canada and Mexico in 2024 accounted for 22 per cent of all vehicles sold in the country, according to S&P Global Mobility.

The research group also noted that automakers and suppliers manufacture components throughout the region, meaning tariffs would likely increase vehicle costs.
Ready to Respond
Canada and Mexico have signalled they are prepared if Trump proceeds with his tariff plan.

Trudeau stated on Friday that Ottawa is ready with a “purposeful, forceful” response.

Doug Ford, premier of Ontario—Canada’s economic powerhouse—warned on Saturday that “the impact of these tariffs will be felt almost immediately,” predicting job losses and a slowdown in business.
Canada should “hit back hard and hit back strong,” he said at a local election campaign event.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum previously stated that her government would await any announcement “with a cool head” and had prepared contingency plans.

However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday dismissed concerns of a trade war.

Hiking import taxes on crude oil from countries like Canada and Mexico could have “huge implications for US energy prices, especially in the US Midwest,” noted David Goldwyn and Joseph Webster of the Atlantic Council.

On Friday, Trump said he was considering a lower tariff rate on oil.
“We think we’re going to bring it down to 10 per cent,” he told reporters.
Nearly 60 per cent of US crude oil imports come from Canada, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

Canadian heavy oil is refined in the United States, and regions reliant on it may struggle to find an alternative supply.

While Canadian producers would bear some impact of the tariffs, US refiners would also face higher costs, said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service.

AFP

Related Topics:#Trump Canada China Mexico

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Trouble Looms As Trump Gives Iran Two Weeks To Avoid US Airstrikes

Published

10 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could make a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier.

Trump added that he was not inclined to stop Israel attacking Iran because it was “winning,” and was dismissive of European efforts to mediate an end to the conflict.

“I’m giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” Trump told reporters when asked if he could decide to strike Iran before that.

He added that the aim was to “see whether or not people come to their senses.”

Trump had said in a statement on Thursday that he would “make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks” because there was a “substantial chance of negotiations” with Iran.

Those comments had been widely seen as opening a two-week window for negotiations to end the war between Israel and Iran, with the European powers rushing to talks with Tehran.

But his latest remarks indicated Trump could still make his decision before that if he feels that there has been no progress towards dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump meanwhile dismissed talks that European powers Britain, France, Germany and the EU had with Iran’s foreign minister in Geneva on Friday.

Europe ‘didn’t help’

“They didn’t help,” he said as he arrived in Morristown, New Jersey, ahead of a fundraising dinner at his nearby golf club.

“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after the talks in Geneva that Tehran would not resume negotiations with the United States until Israel stopped its attacks.

But Trump was reluctant.

“It’s very hard to make that request right now,” Trump said.

“If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody’s losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens.”

Trump meanwhile doubled down on his claims that Iran is weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear bomb, despite divisions in his own administration about the intelligence behind his assessment.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, said in a report in March that Iran was not close to having enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

“She’s wrong,” Trump said of Gabbard, a longtime opponent of US foreign intervention whom Trump tapped to coordinate the sprawling US spy community.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

AFP

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Trump Orders Mass Layoffs At Voice Of America, Other US-funded Media

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10 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday ordered mass layoffs at Voice of America and other government-funded media, moving ahead with gutting the outlets despite legal disputes and criticism that US adversaries will benefit.

Kari Lake, a fervent Trump supporter named to a senior role at the US Agency for Global Media, said the notices were a “long-overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy.”

Lake said in a statement that she would work with the State Department and Congress to “make sure the telling of America’s story is modernized, effective and aligned with America’s foreign policy.”

Trump issued an order in March that froze Voice of America (VOA) for the first time since it was founded in 1942.

Termination notices were sent to 639 employees on Friday, after previous offers of voluntary departures and dismissals of contractors.

Some 1,400 positions have been eliminated, with only 250 remaining, Lake said.

Voice of America layoffs included journalists from its Persian service who had briefly been brought back to work after Israel attacked Iran a week ago.

Employees have filed a lawsuit challenging Lake’s actions, which come even though Congress had already appropriated funding.

The mass firing decision “spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds the US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world,” the three plaintiffs wrote in a statement.

“Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and extremist groups are flooding the information space with anti-American propaganda. Do not cede this ground by silencing America’s voice,” said the three complainants, Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the “decimation of US broadcasting leaves authoritarian propaganda unchecked by US backed independent media and is a perversion of the law and congressional intent.”

“It is a dark day for the truth,” she wrote on X.

Trump frequently attacks media outlets and has scoffed at the so-called editorial firewall at VOA which prevents the government from intervening in its coverage, something he at times has considered too critical of his administration.

One outlet preserved by the mass cuts has been Radio Marti, which broadcasts into Cuba and enjoys support from anti-communist Cuban-American Republican lawmakers.

Other outlets funded by the US government have included Radio Free Asia, which was set up to provide news to Asian countries without a free press and is now operating in a limited capacity.

Radio Free Europe, formed with a similar mission for Soviet bloc nations during the Cold War, has survived thanks to support from the Czech government.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Protest In Tehran Against Israel

Published

16 hours ago

June 20, 2025

Editor

Thousands of people joined a protest against Israel in the Iranian capital on Friday after weekly prayers, chanting slogans in support of their leaders, images on state television showed.

“This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country,” the news anchor said.

Footage showed protesters in Tehran holding up photographs of commanders killed since the start of the war with Israel, while others waved the flags of Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

“I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, a reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to state television, protests took place in other cities around the country, including in Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.

AFP