Cnn
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President Donald Trump announced new extraordinary prices on Mexico, Canada and China-signing promising economic policy for a long time in his Mar-A-Lago club. The Trump administration has said that prices aim to curb the flow of drugs and undocumented immigrants in America, but they potentially risk substantial price increases for American consumers through a wide range of common goods.
The new policy represents a reversal of practically free trade between the three North American nations which has existed for several years-and an expansion of an icy trade between China and the United States which has increased in the last two administrations.
As Trump has promised on several occasions in recent months, prices will constitute significant rights of 25% on all imports from Mexico and most of Canada’s goods and a 10% price on Chinese products imported in the United States. Although Trump administration officials said on Saturday that prices had been designed to stop the flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants, they have not given any specific reference for new import taxes to be raised – other than the cessation of undocumented drugs and immigrants entering the country.
The prices should invite reprisals, perhaps triggering a trade war that could considerably damage the economies of the targeted countries and the United States. In anticipation of this, Trump’s executive action includes a clause that allows the president to expand prices if a country imposes new prices in the United States.
In particular, prices included a significant layoff – the price on Canadian energy products will be 10%. Many Americans are counting on Canadian energy products, including oil, electricity, natural gas, for fuel and domestic heating. The cost of these items could increase when the prices are put in place.
To put the prices in place, Trump in his executive action declared a national economic emergency, invoking the international law on economic powers, known as “Iepa”, which unilaterally authorizes a president to manage imports during a national emergency. The prices should come into force Tuesday morning at 12:01 p.m..
“Today, I have implemented a 25% rate on imports from Mexico and Canada (10% on Canadian energy) and an additional 10% price on China,” said Trump in a Message published on Truth Social Saturday. “This has been done through the International Economic Powers (IEEPA) law due to the major threat of illegal foreigners and fatal drugs killing our citizens, including fentanyl. We must protect the Americans, and it is my duty as president to ensure everyone’s safety. »»
Saturday’s prices represent a firearm on what could be transformed into a world trade war, perhaps inviting reprisals of Mexico, Canada and China in the form of higher prices on goods than states- United export to these countries. This could result in potentially much higher costs, disturbed supply chains and loss of jobs. During a call with journalists on Saturday, an official of the Trump administration said that any reprisals in Mexico, China and Canada would likely lead to even higher prices for this country. Even Trump has recognized the potential of harmful consequences on American consumers.
“There could be temporary short -term disruptions, and people will understand this,” Trump said on Friday when he was in a hurry by journalists on the cost of prices transmitted to importers and, by extension, to consumers. “But the prices will make us very rich and very strong – and we will very fairly treat other countries.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in anticipation of Trump’s actions, said previously that Canada would ride with force and quickly if the United States imposed prices. The country’s commercial representatives met with officials of the Trump administration as recently as Friday in order to consider the prices.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Canada for Natural Resources, said in a position on X that Canada “did nothing as a prices” in the United States but was “prepared and ready to fight” for its residents.
Prices are one of the few politicians that Trump has always supported for decades, a rare line of his days as a New York developer in his stay in the public service (another is immigration). As a candidate, he has sworn that he would use prices – “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” – to have a lever effect abroad.
Mexico, China and Canada are the three largest business partners in the United States.
And in 2023, Mexico exceeded China as the First Nation exporting goods to the United States, marking the first time in two decades, China was not the largest exporter. Prices that the first Trump administration set up, which the Biden administration has largely maintained, had a negative impact on the amount of goods that the United States from China. Mexican and Canadian property was imported into the United States, which was practically a franchise of rights due to the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, which Trump negotiated with the American border nations during his first administration.
Mexico also maintained this leading position last year, exporting a value of $ 467 billion in the United States, followed by China and Canada, which exported $ 401 billion and $ 377 respectively dollars respectively goods.
It is according to figures from the trade department from last year to November, the last month of available data. Collectively, the three countries represented 42% of nearly $ 3 billions in goods that the United States imported into the world last year.
Canada was the first country of goods exported to the United States for last year, worth $ 322 billion, followed by Mexico and China, which received $ 309 billion and $ 131 billion respectively goods from the United States. US exports to the three countries represented more than 40% of the $ 1.9 billion in goods that the United States exported globally last year.