Palm Beach, Florida (AP) – President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Americans could feel “a certain pain” emerging trade war triggered by his Prices against Canada, Mexico and ChinaAnd said Canada “stops existing” without its trade surplus with the United States.
The commercial penalties that Trump signed on Saturday in his Florida complex caused a mixture of panic, anger and uncertainty, and threatened to break a partnership of decades on trade in North America while putting more relations with China.
Trump returned from Florida on Sunday evening and threatened to impose higher rates elsewhere, telling journalists that import taxes “will happen definitively” with the European Union and possibly with the United Kingdom as well.
He dismissed Canada’s reprisal measures, saying: “If they want to play the game, I don’t mind. We can play the game whatever they want. Trump said he was planning to speak to his Canadian and Mexican counterparts on Monday.
By following his pricing campaign commitment, Trump may also simultaneously have broken his promise to voters in last year’s elections that his administration could quickly reduce inflation. This means that the same frustration he faces in other countries could also spread at consumers and businesses at the national level.
“Will there be pain?” Yes, maybe (and maybe not!) “Said Trump in an article on social networks. “But we will make America again large, and all this will be worth the price that must be paid.”
His administration did not say what specific improvements should be seen in the cessation of illegal immigration and smuggling of fentanyl to deserve the abolition of the prices that Trump imposed the legal justification for an economic emergency. But Trump, addressing journalists after Air Force One, said that commercial imbalances with Canada and Mexico should also be erased as a condition to lift prices.
The president also tried to clarify his article on possible inflation, saying on Sunday: “We can have a little pain in the short term and people understand it. But in the long term, the United States has been scammed by practically all countries of the world. »»
The prices should be launched on Tuesday and triggered confusion while the United States Ambassador of Canada, Kirsten Hillman, told ABC News that his country was perplexed by the move because “we consider ourselves your neighbor, your The nearest friend, your ally ”.
In his social post, Trump particularly targeted Canada, which responded with reprisal measures. Trump places a 25% rate on Canadian products, with a 10% tax on oil, natural gas and electricity. Canada imposes prices of 25%, more than $ 155 billion Canadian (105 billion US dollars) on American products, including alcohol and fruit.
Despite Trump’s claims that the United States does not need Canada, a quarter of the oil The fact that America consumes a day is from its ally to the north. He reiterated his false assertion that America subsidizes Canada by managing a commercial imbalance, a reflection in a part of Canada exporting energy to the United States
Trump argued that without this surplus, “Canada ceases to exist as a viable country. Hard but true! Therefore, Canada should become our 51st darling state. Much lower taxes, and much better military protection for the people of Canada – and no prices! »»
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encourages Canadians to buy more Canadian property, and says Trump’s movements will only make pain across North America. More than 75% of Canada exports will go to the United States in Canada will first target alcohol, cosmetics and paper products; A second round later will include passenger vehicles, trucks, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy products and more.
Canada is the largest export market for 36 states and Mexico is the largest trading partner in the United States
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum also announced new prices and suggested that the United States should do more inside its own borders to combat drug addiction. She and Trudeau spoke after Trump’s announcement and agreed to “improve strong bilateral relations” between Canada and Mexico, according to Prime Minister’s office.
The Chinese government said it would take measures to defend its economic interests and intends to bring legal action to the World Trade Organization.
For Trump, the open question is whether inflation could be a political pressure point that would make it go back. As a candidate, Trump repeatedly hammered Democrats about inflation under President Joe Biden who resulted from supply chain problems during the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden administration’s own expenses to stimulate The resumption and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Trump said his previous four years as president had low inflation, so the public should expect the same thing if he came back to the White House. But he also specifically declared that a higher inflation would sweep the United States as a nation, a position which he now seems to withdraw with the promise of even more to come.
The American president did not offer details on Sunday on the moment when he imposed prices elsewhere, but he said that they would come “very soon” for the EU, which is also made up of us allies.
Larry Summers, secretary to the Treasury of the Clinton administration, said the prices were a “self-inflicted injury to the American economy”.
He told CNN’s “internal policy” that “on the playground or in international relations, intimidation is not a lasting victorious strategy. And that’s what it is. And the ultimate winner, suggested Summers, would be the Chinese leader Xi Jinping because “we have moved to drive some of our closest allies in his arms” and “we legitimize everything he does by violating all international standards that we have established. “”
External analyzes clearly indicate that Trump’s prices would harm the voters that he intended to help, which means that he could ultimately need to find a resolution.
An analysis of the Yale LAB budget shows that if the prices should continue, an average American household would lose about $ 1,245 in revenues this year, in what would be the overall equivalent of an increase of more than 1.4 Billion of Dollars in the next 10 years.
Goldman Sachs, in a Sunday analyst note, stressed that the prices come into force on Tuesday, which means that they are likely to proceed “although a last -minute compromise cannot be completely excluded”.
The investment bank concluded that due to possible economic damage and possible withdrawal conditions “We believe that it is more likely that the prices are temporary, but the prospects are not clear.”
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The writers of the Associated Press Michelle L. Price in New York and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
