President Donald Trump has declared Canada and Mexico have “no room left” to make a deal to stop the tariffs which will come into effect from midnight.
Last month, Trump announced his implementation of 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico may cause “some pain”, with the US’ neighbours responding in kind.
Trump said the tariffs were a response to the “major threat” of illegal aliens and drugs flowing into the country which were killing Americans.
The President said he had implemented the tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with 10 per cent on Canadian energy and an additional 10 per cent tariff on China.
On Monday, local time, Trump told reporters at the White House China will also be dealt with an additional 10 per cent duty, bringing their total tariff tax on exports to the US to 20 per cent.
“Just so you understand, vast amounts of fentanyl have poured into our country from Mexico, and as you know, also from China, where it goes to Mexico and goes to Canada,” he said.
“And China also had an additional 10, so it’s 10 plus 10, and it (fentanyl) comes in from Canada, and it comes in from Mexico, and that’s a very important thing to say.”
The President said the tariffs were also a response to China manipulating its currency, reducing the value of the yuan, known as devaluation.
Devaluation makes a country’s exports cheaper for foreign buyers which generally increases them, while making imports more expensive.
“For instance, when people kill their dollar, their equivalent of the dollar, whether it’s the yuan (in China) or the yen in Japan … that puts us at a very unfair disadvantage,” Trump said.
“So all I have to do is say, Howard (Lutnick), we’re going to have to raise the tariffs a little bit because I’ve called President Xi, I’ve called the leaders of Japan to say you can’t continue to reduce and break down your currency.”
Trump said Caterpillar tractors were “very hard for us to make” when China and Japan began “killing their currency”.
The president said it was “very easily” solved with tariffs.
Trump said he would increase China’s tariffs depending on what it did to its currency and what retaliation methods it imposed on the US.
Asked whether he had spoken to President Xi during his first term, Trump told the reporter “I don’t want to tell you that”.
Trump’s latest address was immediately met head on by members of Congress and world leaders, including Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum who said “we have to respond” to the imminent tariffs.
“It’s very important that the people know that we have made a very important effort of coordination, of collaboration, but it depends on the United States,” President Sheinbaum said.
Among the chorus of voices rebuking the President’s landmark economic pressures was Democratic Representative Jason Crow who noted the significant stock market dip the day before the tariffs were to come into effect.
“Prices on your fruits, vegetables, clothing, electronics, and more will go up. Your 401(k) savings are going down. Donald Trump is hurting working people,” Mr Crow wrote on X.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff hit out at Trump’s Truth Social post addressing American farmers who were directed by the President to “get ready” to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold in the US.
The President wrote: “Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have Fun!”
Schiff said farmers he had spoken to had not recovered from the market share they lost since Trump first implemented tariffs in his first term.
“This time, they’ll hurt even more. Much more. This is fun for whom, exactly?” he wrote on X.
Trump said tariffs for other countries will be reciprocal, having insisted in February the import taxes “won’t affect everybody”, while adding on Sunday the US will look at implementing other measures.
“It doesn’t have to be tariffs, but tariffs are easy, they’re fast, they’re efficient, and they bring fairness,” he said.
Trump said it would be “very costly” for countries to “take advantage” of the US from now on.
“They can’t come in and steal our money and steal our jobs and take our factories and take our businesses and expect not to be punished,” he said.
“And they’re being punished by tariffs. It’s a very powerful weapon that politicians haven’t used because they were either dishonest, stupid, or paid off in some other form. And now we’re using them.”
