WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says he’ll put steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada – unless the U.S. neighbors toughen security at their borders.
Trump said during an impromptu question and answer session with reporters that he was considering levying a blanket duty of 25% on Feb. 1 on both nations over illegal migration and drugs that he says are flowing across their borders with the U.S.
He previewed the potential tariffs as he signed executive orders in the Oval Office. One of the directives he signed ordered the departments of Commerce and Homeland Security to look at “unlawful migration and fentanyl flows” from Canada, Mexico, China and other countries, then “recommend appropriate trade and national security measures to resolve that emergency.”
The U.S. president threatened a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada on social media shortly after his election victory, prompting an emergency trip by the Canadian prime minister to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to negotiate.
The U.S. had a trade deficit ‒ imports exceeding the value of exports ‒ with Mexico of $152.4 billion in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Its deficit with Canada was $67.9 billion.
Its largest trade deficit is with China at $279.4 billion. Exports from China to the U.S. surged in the last month of 2024 as traders rushed to get ahead of tariffs Trump had proposed for that country.
Mexico suggests it will retaliate:President Claudia Sheinbaum fires warning shot over Trump’s proposed tariffs
Trump’s move against its North American neighbors could prompt retaliatory tariffs and lead to higher prices for Americans, the leaders of Canada and Mexico have warned.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo suggested after Trump’s earlier threat that she could respond with tariffs of her own.
In an interview with MSNBC after his meeting with Trump, outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that if the U.S. president did go forward with tariffs, they would “raise the cost of just about everything for American citizens.”
Trudeau announced his resignation earlier this month, after his meeting with Trump.
