President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the nation’s three largest trading partners, in response to what he said was their role in permitting illegal immigration and drugs to enter the United States.
The president signed three executive orders establishing the measures, the first official actions of his second-term trade war, according to a White House official who briefed reporters.
American importers will pay a new 25-percent tax on goods from Canada and Mexico and a 10-percent levy on products from China, the president said. Most products from Canada and Mexico currently face no tariffs, under a trade deal Trump signed during his first term, while many Chinese goods incur taxes of up to 25 percent. The new tariffs are in addition to those fees.
Energy products, including crude oil from Canada, will suffer a 10 percent charge.
“We’ve suffered with millions of criminals coming into our country, criminals, people from jails, from all over the world. They come through Mexico and they come through Canada, too,” he said on Friday.
The president also has complained about Chinese fentanyl shipments making their way to the United States via Mexico and Canada and lashed out over the large U.S. trade deficits with each country. Steep U.S. tariffs are aimed at incentivizing manufacturers to make their products in the United States with American workers rather than ship them here from aboard.
