White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday U.S. President Donald Trump will implement 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and 10 per cent tariffs on goods from China on Saturday.
She did not offer any details about possible exemptions and said media reports that the tariffs would be delayed until March were false.
Asked during the briefing about the possibility of a trade war, Leavitt dismissed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to respond to tariffs in kind.
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She says Trudeau should speak to Trump directly.
“The tariffs are incoming tomorrow on Canada,” she said.
Trump had been threatening the tariffs to ensure greater cooperation from the countries on stopping illegal immigration and the smuggling of chemicals used for fentanyl, but he has also pledged to use tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing and raise revenues for the federal government.
“Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” Leavitt told reporters. “These are promises made and promises kept by the president.”
The tariffs carry both political and economic risks for Trump, who is just two weeks into his second term. Many voters backed the Republican on the promise that he could tamp down inflation, but the possibility of tariffs could trigger higher prices and potentially disrupt the energy, auto, lumber and agricultural sectors.
Trump had said he was weighing issuing an exemption for Canadian and Mexican oil imports, but Leavitt said she had no information to share on the president’s decision on any potential carveouts.
The United States imported almost 4.6 million barrels of oil daily from Canada in October and 563,000 barrels from Mexico, according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. daily production during that month averaged nearly 13.5 million barrels a day.
Trump has previously stated a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports would be on top of other import taxes charged on products from the country.
Shortly after Leavitt spoke, the S&P 500 stock index sold off and largely erased its gains on the day.
Both Canada and Mexico have said they’ve prepared the option of retaliatory tariffs to be used if necessary, which in turn could trigger a wider trade conflict that economic analyses say could hurt growth and further accelerate inflation.
Trudeau said Friday that Canada is ready is a respond if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs, but he did not give details.
“We’re ready with a response, a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response,” he said. “It’s not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act.”
Trudeau said tariffs would have “disastrous consequences” for the U.S, putting American jobs at risk and causing prices to rise. Trudeau reiterated that less than one per cent of the fentanyl and illegal crossings into the U.S. come from Canada.
Other Canadian politicians and business groups were also making a final push today in the hope of avoiding or mitigating the move, and the economic uncertainty that would follow.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said a plan to meet U.S. tariffs dollar for dollar, tariff for tariff would be the best show of strength and unity.
Asked what Ontario’s plans are going into the weekend, Ford said there are a lot of tools in the toolbox that America depends on.
Ford also emphasized that the goalposts are shifting minute by minute and it’s important to find out what’s going to happen before taking action.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico has maintained a dialogue with Trump’s team since before he returned to the White House, but she emphasized that Mexico has a “Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for what the United States government decides.”
“Now it is very important that the Mexican people know that we are always going to defend the dignity of our people, we are always going to defend the respect of our sovereignty and a dialogue between equals, as we have always said, without subordination,” Sheinbaum said.
A study this month by Warwick McKibbin and Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics concluded that the 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10 per cent tariffs on China “would damage all the economies involved, including the US.’’
– With additional reporting from The Associated Press
