President Donald Trump will implement tariffs Saturday on the three largest US trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China — the White House said, sparking alarm for global trade.
Trump has reiterated his plans for 25 percent tariffs on neighbors Canada and Mexico, saying they have failed to crack down on illegal migrants crossing the US border and the flow of fentanyl.
He also threatened a 10 percent duty for Chinese goods on the same day, similarly over the drug.
“The 1st February deadline that President Trump put into place at a statement several weeks ago continues,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday.
“Both Canada and Mexico have allowed an unprecedented invasion of illegal fentanyl that is killing American citizens, and also immigrants into our country,” she added.
She did not commit to exemptions on sectors, and rejected warnings that this would spark a trade war.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed earlier Friday an “immediate response” if Trump acted, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government was in close contact with Trump’s administration.
While Trump has not specified tools he would use, analysts have suggested he could tap emergency economic powers, which allow the president to regulate imports during a national emergency. But this could be hindered by lawsuits.
Fentanyl has been responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths a year.
Beijing has rebuffed claims of its complicity in the trade, while close US ally Canada has countered that below one percent of undocumented migrants and fentanyl entering the United States comes through its northern border.
Some analysts believe tariff threats are a bargaining chip to accelerate the renegotiation of the existing trade deal known as USMCA between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
“However, potentially dismantling a decades-long free-trade area could be a significant shock,” said a recent JPMorgan note.
Tariffs are paid by US businesses to the government on purchases from abroad and the economic weight can fall on importers, foreign suppliers or consumers.
