President Trump plans to impose hard invoices on Mexico, Canada and China on Saturday, a move aimed at pressure on America’s largest trading partners to accept more immigrants and resting the flow of immigrants and drugs in the United States.
Mr Trump will set 25 percent invoice on goods from Mexico and Canada, along with 10 percent invoice on Chinese products, said Karoline Leavitt, Secretary of the White House, in information on Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Friday, Mr Trump said the invoices were punishment for Canada, Mexico and China, allowing drugs and immigrants to flood in the United States.
Mr Trump’s decision to hit America’s trade partners with invoices could mark the launch of a disturbed and destructive trade war, which is much worse than the conflict that determined Mr Trump’s first term.
Mr Trump then raised invoices on almost two -thirds of Chinese imports, resulting in China hitting the US with its own contributions. Mr Trump also imposed invoices on steel and aluminum, motivating retaliation from the European Union, Mexico and Canada.
While invoices against allies were considered controversial, they were relatively limited to scope. It remains to be seen exactly what products of Mr Trump’s new invoices, but the president implied that they would be expansive and cover imports from Canada and Mexico, near the United States allies.
Mr Trump said on Friday that he would “” absolutely “impose invoices on the European Union, saying they” treated us so terribly “. He added that the United States would eventually put invoices on brands, oil and gas -” I think around February 18, “he said – as well as later collecting for steel, aluminum and copper.
Canada, Mexico and China are America’s three largest trading partners, providing the United States with cars, medicine, shoes, timber, electronics, steel and many other products. Together, they represent more than one third of the goods and services imported or purchased by the United States, supporting tens of millions of US jobs.
The three governments have promised to respond to Mr Trump’s contributions at their own prices to US exports, including Florida orange juice, whiskey tennessee and Kentucky Peanut Butter. All three of these states have Republican senators representing them in Congress and voted for Mr Trump in 2024.
Mr Trump’s invoices will immediately add an additional charge for importers who bring products beyond the border, most of which are US companies. On the nearest term, this could disrupt the supply chains and lead to shortcomings if the importers choose not to pay the invoice costs.
If importers pay the invoice, they will probably be translated into higher prices for some US goods, as these companies generally transmit the cost of invoices to their customers.
“Hopes that Trump’s tariff threats were merely wicked and a negotiation tool are now collapsing under the harsh reality of his determination to develop invoices as a tool for shifting other countries’ policies according to his preferences,” Eswar Prasad said , Professor of Commercial Policy at Cornell University.
Mr Trump said in November that he would put the invoices in Canada, Mexico and China in an attempt to stop the flow of immigrants and drugs, especially Fentanyl, in the United States.
The threat began a fight by Canadian and Mexican officials who tried to persuade the administration to keep the invoices by participating in last -minute talks with Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and describing the efforts they make to the border police.
Car, agricultural and energy energy companies have pushed Trump’s management hard so as not to implement invoices and have requested a process of exceptions that could give some discharge products.
Marcelo Ebrard, Minister of the Mexican Economy, said on Friday that invoices would probably lead to deficiencies in specific goods and that US prices for Mexican goods would increase. Called the “a strategic mistake” movement by Trump’s administration.
“The main impact is clear: millions of families in the United States will have to pay 25 % more,” he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada, in a position on X on Friday afternoon, said “no one – on each side of the border – wants to see American invoices in Canadian goods”. He said that “if the United States is moving forward, Canada is ready with a strong and immediate answer.”
A Chinese Embassy spokesman said China has consistently opposed invoices and that differences or friction should be driven through dialogue. “There is no winner in a trade war or a tariff war, which serves the interests on the side or the world,” the spokesman said.
Mr Trump’s consultants weigh different options for invoices, such as their implementation in specific areas, such as steel and aluminum, or delaying their power date for several months, according to people who are familiar with planning.
Ms Leavitt said the president had chosen to impose invoices because the countries “allowed an unprecedented invasion of the illegal fentanyl that kills American citizens and also illegal immigrants in our country”.
“The quantity of fentanyl seized on the southern border in recent years only has the ability to kill tens of millions of Americans,” he said. “And so the president intends to do that.”
At both borders, the number of illegal intersections has been reduced abruptly.
The number of unauthorized crossings on the southern border in December 2023 reached almost 250,000, crushing the border patrol and causing the government to close an entry port. At the northern border, the flow of immigrants who are illegally crossing during the use of 2024. During this period, more than 23,000 arrests were made by immigrants crossing illegally – two years before that amount was about 2,000.
The situation on the border has changed since then.
In December, the agents made about 47,000 arrests on the southern border and 510 on the northern border.
The financial decline on invoices will depend on how they were structured, but the results of the ripples could be wide. Canada, Mexico and the United States are governed by trade agreement for more than 30 years and many industries, from cars and costume to agriculture, have been largely developed throughout North America.
Mary Lovely, a senior partner at the Peterson Institute of International Economy, said the invoices would be “very expensive” for US businesses.
US factories are based on both countries, including minerals and timber from Canada and Mexico’s car segments. The invoices would also see the efforts made by US companies in recent years to move from China, at the urging of Trump and Biden administrations, Ms. Lovely said.
According to S&P Global economists, the car and electrical equipment in Mexico would be more exposed to disorders if they were raised in invoices, as well as the processing of minerals in Canada. In the United States, the greatest risks would be for agriculture, fishing, metals and car sectors.
Jonathan Samford, president of Global Business Alliance, who represents international companies, said invoices may lead to increasing spending on US consumers, a slowdown for US businesses and have missed opportunities for future investment.
In his observations by the Oval Office on Friday, Mr Trump said he would “probably” reduce the invoice in Canadian oil to 10 percent. About 60 % of oil that imports of the United States come from Canada and about 7 % come from Mexico and experts warned that cutting these flows could cause US energy prices to rise.
While the United States is the largest oil producer in the world, refineries must mix the lightest slow -generated households with heavier oil from places such as Canada to make fuel such as gasoline and diesel.
The potential financial implications of invoices also complicate issues for the Federal Reserve, which is still trying to fight inflation up to 2 % of the target. This week, the Fed made interest rates steady, after a series of cuts, in the midst of inflation and questions about how invoices would play.
In balance, most economists expect higher trade obstacles to raise prices for US businesses and households, which could lead to a temporary explosion of higher inflation. Whether or not it escalates to a more devastating problem will depend on whether Americans’ expectations of future inflation begin to move higher in a meaningful way.
Ernie Tedeschi, Director of Finance at the Yale Budget Laboratory, estimates that a 25 percent invoice in all Canadian and Mexican imported goods – in combination with a 10 percent invoice in all Chinese imports – would lead to a permanent 0.8 percent Bumping at price level, as measured by the personal consumption price index. This translates to about $ 1,300 per household on average. These estimates assume that targeted countries are establishing contradictions and that the Federal Reserve does not take action by adjusting interest rates.
Mr Tedeschi expects invoices at this level will eventually shave 0.2 % of the gross domestic product as soon as inflation is taken into account.
Mr Trump’s leading financial advisers have questioned the idea that the inflation of fuel invoices and claimed that exporters from countries such as China would reduce their prices in view of higher US invoices.
In the press briefing, Mrs Leavitt said that inflation remained sluggish in Mr Trump’s first term, despite the invoices imposed. And he said the president undertook other policies that would reduce inflation, such as tax cuts and encouraging energy production.
Hamed aleaziz; Vjosa isai and Emiliano RodrÃguez Mega They contributed reports.
