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Donald Trump struck Canada, Mexico and China with high prices on Saturday in a decision that threatens to launch a new era of commercial wars between the United States and three of its largest business partners.
Trump has published an executive decree applying additional prices of 25% to all imports from Canada and Mexico, with the exception of Canadian petroleum and energy products, which will face a 10% levy. Canada is by far the largest foreign oil supplier in the United States, representing around 60% of its gross imports.
Imports from China will face a price of 10% beyond existing American rates.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump said that he had used emergency powers to issue the prices “due to the major threat of illegal foreigners and fatal drugs that kill our citizens, including fentanyl”.
A White House official said that Canadian energy rates aimed at minimizing “disruptive effects” on American domestic petrol and heating costs, but confirmed that there would not be other exclusions.
The prices would apply from Tuesday, said the White House.
“This is a beautiful and fine example of promises made, promises run by President Trump,” said a White House official.
The official said that each order contained “a reprisals. . . So that if a country chooses to retaliate in any way, the signal will be to take additional measures with regard to probable prices. »»
There was no immediate response from American trade partners, although Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to announce reprisals later this evening. The Chinese embassy did not respond to a request for comments.
But this decision was strongly condemned by industrial groups and economists, with the American Chamber of Commerce warned that it “would increase prices for American families and overthrow the supply chains”.
The president used the international law on the economic powers of emergency, an executive authority which allows him to respond to emergencies by economic means, to apply the levies without approval from the congress. The law has not been used before to promulgate prices, although Trump threatened to use it against Mexico in 2019.
Trump’s sudden abrupt move will get rid of the hopes of countries that expected a slower and more cautious approach to trade policy after the Trump administration ordered a series of criticisms on US trade relations on the day of the inauguration.
This also indicates the president’s desire to use prices to put pressure on the allies on questions ranging from immigration to drug trafficking. Trump justified the prices by complaining about what he says is lax security on the borders with Mexico and Canada, and arguing that both – with China – did not manage to stem the flow of Mortal opioids in the United States.
On Saturday, a White House official said that the prices would be raised as soon as “the Americans stop dying from Made to China, distributed by Mexico and the fentanyl of Canada”.
The manager added: “It is not only fentanyl. . . It is really a border security problem. »»
Trump also cited the American trade deficit with Canada, Mexico and China as justification of prices. Friday, he admitted that they could cause “disturbances”, but added: “The prices will make us very rich and very strong”.
Trump said on Friday that he was planning to take prices on EU imports, but the announcement on Saturday included no measure relating to the EU.
Trump prevented the price of 60% on Chinese imports from China that he had threatened during the presidential campaign. The 10% levy was designed to punish Beijing on the ingredient flow to make fentanyl, a deadly opiate which was the main cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45 in the last three years.
Beijing repressed the export of fentanyl several years ago, but groups in China have gone to the export of pioneering chemicals to cartels in Mexico to produce the final product.
Dimitry Anastakis, a business professor at the University of Toronto, said that American prices could be a shock for the system as painful as the cocovio pandemic.
“It’s useless and quite stupid,” he said. “It brings a hammer to a problem to a problem nonexistent with the North American economy that worked fairly well.”
Anastakis said there would be immediate pain in automotive trade, job losses and a probable recession in Canada.
Additional report by Ilya Gridneff in Toronto and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
