The United States lifted its month-long pause on tariffs for Canada and Mexico today, ending the possibility that the duties would be pushed back a second time.
Beginning Tuesday, imports from each country will now be subject to a 25% tariff, per amendments to President Donald Trump’s executive orders from last month. There will also be a 10% tariff on Canadian energy products, per the orders.
The tariffs on Canada and Mexico were originally set to go into effect Feb. 4 following executive orders from Trump. However, the U.S. delayed the duties by roughly a month after reaching temporary agreements with both countries.
The deals centered around reducing migration into the U.S. and fentanyl trafficking. Last week, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said both Mexico and Canada still had to prove to the president they had satisfactorily addressed those two issues to receive another pause.
According to a White House notice published Monday, the two countries “have failed to adequately address the situation,” leading to the implementation of tariffs.
“Let me be unequivocally clear — there is no justification for these actions,” Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement Monday.
Canada will respond to the new duties by enacting retaliatory tariffs of 25% against $155 billion worth of U.S. goods, $30 billion of which would start today, according to Trudeau. The remaining $125 billion of products will be subject to tariffs in 21 days.
Mexico on Sunday will announce its own countermeasures, including tariff and non-tariff actions, President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a press conference Tuesday.
Sheinbaum called Trump’s tariffs a unilateral action, and his messaging defamatory. She said Mexico and the U.S. had taken significant actions over the past month to combat organized crime and fentanyl trafficking, and improve the countries’ collaboration on security and commercial topics.
“There is no motivation, reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our peoples and nations,” Sheinbaum said in Spanish. “We have said it in different ways: cooperation and coordination, yes; subordination and interventionism, no. Mexico should be respected. We are equal nations.”
Meanwhile, Trump increased tariffs on China by 10% Monday via an amendment to an executive order he originally signed last month. The action builds upon the 10% jump from the initial order, which went into effect Feb. 4.
As with tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the Trump administration said the increased duties on China were due to the country's “failure” to cooperate with the administration’s push to stem the importation of fentanyl.
China is retaliating against the tariff hike with added duties on a variety of U.S. agricultural imports starting March 10, according to an announcement from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
The country will impose an additional 15% tariff on cotton, chicken, wheat and corn from the U.S. It will also levy a new 10% tariff on certain U.S. agricultural and fishing imports.
The planned countermeasures come after China placed added tariffs of 10% to 15% on some car, equipment and energy imports from the U.S. in February in response to previous Trump administration tariff actions.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a Tuesday press conference that the country is ready to fight in “a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war” against the U.S. The spokesperson added that the U.S.’ issues with fentanyl are self-imposed and “a flimsy excuse” for higher tariffs on imports from China.
“These new tariffs are compounding rapidly,” Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, said in an emailed statement. “Amid other hints at hitting hard on the EU and other allies as well, each HTS code of tariffs snowballs into a growing — and potentially crushing — burden on American businesses and hardworking American families.”
Lamar, whose organization has more than 1,000 fashion industry members, added that uncertainty and instability are “corrosive” and undermine “the vitality of our consumer driven economy, and the 3.5 million American jobs created by our industry.”
He also said he looked forward to discussions with U.S. administration officials.
“It is vital that our government’s actions be aligned so that they benefit both the crucial exports of American-grown and American-manufactured goods as well as U.S. imports of safe, affordable, and innovative consumer products,” Lamar said. “Both sides of this trade equation support hundreds of millions of American consumers and workers, and the communities in which they live. We also look to the 119th Congress to assert its constitutionally mandated roles on tariffs to ensure these trade policies can achieve their objectives in a clear manner and to reactivate and renew beneficial trade agreements and trade preference programs that leverage U.S. economic objectives while promoting predictable market access.”
