Donald Trump says he will impose new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada on his first day in office. Force them to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking in the US.
The president-elect said he would sign an executive order shortly after his inauguration on January 20 that would impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada.
He also said that an additional 10 percent tariff would be imposed on China until the country’s government stops the smuggling of the synthetic opioid fentanyl from the country.
If Trump follows through on the threats, it would be a major escalation in tensions with America’s three largest trading partners.
Trump said in a post on his True social platform that tariffs on Mexico and Canada will remain in place until both countries ban drugs, particularly fentanyl, and illegal immigrants. Put
He said that both Mexico and Canada have the full right and power to resolve this long-simmering issue smoothly.
“It is time for them to pay a heavy price!”
In a separate post, Trump attacked Beijing for failing to follow through on promises he said Chinese authorities had made to execute people caught dealing fentanyl.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the BBC that “China’s deliberate allowing of fentanyl precursors to flow into the US is completely contrary to facts and reality.”
“China believes that China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. Neither will win a trade war or a tariff war,” he added.
The Biden administration is pushing Beijing to do more to curb production of the ingredient used in fentanyl, which Washington estimates killed nearly 75,000 Americans last year.
During his campaign, Trump threatened Mexico and China with tariffs of up to 100 percent if he deemed them necessary, far higher than those he imposed during his first term.
Trump has also said he would end China’s most-favored trade status with the United States — the most favorable terms Washington offers on tariffs and other sanctions.
Tariffs are a central part of Trump’s economic vision — he sees them as a way to grow the U.S. economy, protect jobs and raise tax revenue.
He has previously claimed that these taxes “will not be a cost to you, it is a cost to another country”.
It is almost universally regarded by economists as misleading.
“It’s clearly consistent with his campaign promise to use tariffs as a weapon,” Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, told the BBC’s Business Today program. to accomplish many of his policy initiatives.”
Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Besant, previously suggested that the president’s pick’s threats of major tariff hikes were part of his negotiating strategy.
“My general view is that at the end of the day, he’s an independent businessman,” Besant said of Trump in an interview with the Financial Times before he was nominated for the role.
“It grows from de scalete.”
This comes at a time when the Chinese economy is in a significantly weaker position than it was during the previous Trump presidency.
The country is grappling with a number of serious issues, including the ongoing property market crisis, weak domestic demand and rising local government debt.
The new tariffs appear to violate the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA).
The agreement, which Trump signed, went into effect in 2020. It maintained extensive duty-free trade relations between the three neighboring countries.
After Trump threatened tariffs, he discussed trade and border security with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to Reuters.
Mexico’s Finance Ministry said: “Mexico is a top trading partner of the United States, and the USMCA provides a framework of certainty for national and international investors.”