Washington On Saturday, President Donald Trump intends to impose tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, potentially igniting a trade war that would raise the cost of groceries and many other goods.
During a briefing on Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Trump will impose a 10% duty on imports from China and 25% on goods entering the country from Canada and Mexico. Businesses that import goods from other nations pay tariffs, and they frequently pass the cost increase on to customers.
According to Leavitt, the reason for the tariffs that will be imposed on Canada tomorrow is that both Canada and Mexico have permitted an unprecedented influx of illegal fentanyl, which is killing both illegal immigrants and American people.
According to Leavitt, Trump has not yet determined whether he will impose tariffs on the 27-nation European Union.
She stated that she would not outshine the president on tariffs pertaining to the European Union.
Later Friday, Trump stated from the Oval Office that he was using the tariffs to increase federal revenue and draw attention to the influx of fentanyl into the US, rather than as a negotiation weapon.
We are not seeking a compromise. Trump stated, “We’ll just see what happens.”
According to him, the new tariffs will be applied on top of the current ones.
Trump declared that he will eventually impose further duties on oil and gas, steel, aluminum, copper, computer chips and related items, pharmaceuticals, and all types of medicine.
Trump did not specify dates for the other duties, but he stated that he will probably enact the gas and oil levies on February 18.
When asked how tariffs will affect pricing, Trump dismissed the topic, claiming he was elected to lower inflation. He stated that he was not worried about how the stock market would respond to the upcoming tariffs on Friday afternoon.
Numerous economists have cautioned against implementing tariffs in this manner on a large scale, including those at conservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute.
Former Republican Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm, a nonresident senior fellow at AEI, and former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Larry Summers urged Trump against enacting tariffs in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
They said, “Our shared opposition to non-defense-related tariffs is founded on evidence that tariffs are detrimental to the economy, not on our belief in free trade.”
According to Gramm and Summers, protective tariffs cause domestic manufacturers to invest time and money in producing goods and services that might have been purchased more affordably on the global market, so distorting home production. In turn, that capital and labor are taken away from creating goods and services that could be purchased more affordably abroad. In the process, prices increase while economic growth, wages, and productivity decline. Our security and economic partnerships are also weakened by tariffs and the retaliation they cause.
During the press briefing, Leavitt dismissed the possible effects on the U.S. economy and stated that only Trump could determine whether he would eventually remove or change the tariffs.
According to the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Canada and Mexico rank first and third in terms of agricultural product imports to the United States, with corresponding averages of $30.9 billion and $25.5 billion in 2017–21.
Fruit, vegetables, and alcoholic beverages made up 31% of the horticulture products imported into the United States from Mexico. In addition to cereals, meats, and horticulture items, Canada is a supplier.
In 2022, the United States imported $562.9 billion worth of goods from China, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s website.
According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. agricultural exports to China, which may be affected by retaliatory tariffs, came to $36.4 billion in fiscal year 2022.
Since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), U.S. exports have resumed their trend growth. Over the past two years, the United States has seen record export values to China for soybeans, corn, beef, chicken meat, tree nuts, and sorghum. Due to high demand, cotton exports to China have also increased. Each of these goods plays a significant role in the agricultural economy of the United States.
This report was aided by Ashley Murray.
