In a sweeping move that could redefine U.S. trade policy, President Donald Trump has signed a series of new tariffs targeting imports from Canada, Mexico, and China under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), thus setting the stage for fresh economic battles with key trade partners. Effective immediately, the U.S. will impose a 25% duty on goods from Canada and Mexico, with Canadian oil facing a reduced 10% rate, while Chinese imports will be hit with a 10% tariff.
More from CNN:
“Saturday’s tariffs amount to a starting gun on what could escalate into a global trade war, with the potential for higher costs, disrupted supply chains and the loss of jobs. Even Trump acknowledged the potential for adverse consequences on American consumers.
“There could be some temporary, short-term disruption, and people will understand that,” Trump said Friday when pressed by reporters on the cost of tariffs being passed on to importers, and, by extension, consumers. “But the tariffs are going to make us very rich and very strong — and we’re going to treat other countries very fairly.”
Yahoo Finance had mixed reactions from Capitol Hill on the tariffs that were signed moments ago from an interview as today’s deadline approached.
“Other voices on Saturday offered praise for the move. A Trump ally on Capitol Hill, House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson, offered that “President Trump’s tariff policy has been an effective tool in leveling the global playing field and ensuring fair trade for American producers.”
But not all of Trump’s allies were on board.
“Tariffs are simply taxes,” wrote Sen. Rand Paul, a vocal Trump advocate on other fronts, on Saturday. “Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices,” he added.
In response to the backlash, the White House released a fact sheet justifying the tariffs as part of a strategy to curb fentanyl trafficking across the U.S. border.
WH fact sheet on the new tariffs pic.twitter.com/Dqq30iWn5x
— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress) February 1, 2025
Canadian reactions were swift. The leader of the Conservative Party took direct aim at Trump on X, calling for countermeasures:
We must put CANADA FIRST.
That is why Common Sense Conservatives condemn President Trump’s massive, unjust and unjustified tariffs on Canada’s already weak economy. Canada is the United States’ closest neighbour, greatest ally and best friend. We share the longest undefended…— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) February 1, 2025
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who held an emergency cabinet meeting after being notified this morning of the impending tariffs, is set to speak later this evening.
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Comments
I bet China will absorb the tariff in order to avoid market share loss, then buckle and cheat.
What he should do is end the subsidies we give China through the International Postal Union that allows them to sell crap with “free shipping”. The company across town can’t compete with free delivery.
Everything to be made in the USA and we be net exporters. Sounds really great!
Now for the horrible problem we have we have with that foreign country California. Tariffs on them too?
The android app is FUBAR
jumping to 2023 2031 and worse
Canada and Mexico need us a HELLUVA LOT MORE than we need them.
Stop letting illegals invade the border and break US law, and MAYBE we can start talking about walking the tariffs back.
bloomberg has headlines about Mex Can and China putting tariffs on us
Canadian constitutional lawyer here, longtime reader but only recently got an account.
Here are some very unfortunate facts for our American brothers and sisters to the south. Many Canadians are in favor of Trump’s election, we are emboldened about the destruction of discriminatory DEI and the tackling of the administrative state.
In Canada right now the Justin Trudeau liberals are finally on the out. Trudeau is finally stepping down in March. The other parties have pledged to vote down the government. In Canada it is a thing adopted from English based systems that the U.S.A. did not carry over where essentially if our version of the House of Representatives votes down a budget bill, or votes to pass a “non-confidence motion” then the government falls and an election is triggered. While not a perfect example it would be like if a successful impeachment caused by the house and passed by two-thirds of the senate did not just remove the President but triggered a presidential election. It is not a perfect example but our two constitutional systems vary specifically where it comes to the Executive.
I digress. The point is Trudeau and the Liberal party are on their way out. An election must happen this year in 2025, it will probably happen sooner thanks to a non confidence motion. In Canada the conservatives are blue not red, so the pollsters expect a “blue wave” in the election the equivalent of having a super majority in both the house and the senate.
With that said. Trudeau and the Liberals are happy to turn Trump’s reasonable and desirable demand for better border security and increased defense spending into a partisan tool to gin up artificial “us versus them” talking points. The Trudeau Liberals are doing this to try not to be absolutely wiped out in the next election.
Basically, Canada’s life support government is destroying our economy with false bravado and “tariff-for-tariff” fighting for their own partisan purposes instead of just securing the border and increasing defence spending. As they should.
The last tragedy is that Polievre the conservative leader who will be the next PM is in favour of massively cutting immigration, boosting defense spending, and improving border security. He will when he gets in.
It is just simply too bad that it has not been able to get across Trump’s desk that his reasonable demands are being hampered by dying technocrats and genuine and conservative Canadians are going to pay for it when these tariffs (against Canada at least) could be wholly avoided.
Nonetheless, one thing that appropriately headed people understand is that we do not pick the world we want to live in, we pick the world with the consequences we can bear. I’d rather bear 25% tariffs (if I have to) and invite the Trump crusade against the much more destructive beasts of DEI, Green Socialism, and a dimuninition of the administrative estate, than to not have a 25% tariff and have those evils accelerate.
We pick the consequences we commit to living with, not the goals we demand we cannot live without.
The Biden administration helped to prop up Canada’s economy and help Trudeau by allowing a trade deficit with Canada to grow. When given the opportunity to prop up leftists worldwide, Biden always put America last. The respective leaders of Mexico and Canada should have seen this coming.
You did not read what I wrote then?
Seems to me that the fix is actually quite easy and one that should have never ended where we are today.
Mexico SHOULD have stopped people entering their country with the sole intention of entering America illegally and Canada most definitely should have been policing their border like they policed truckers and anyone who uses hurty words to describe mentally retarded men who thing they are donuts.
Now watch the media side with Americas enemies once again.
Is there a difference between the media and America’s enemies? I always believed they were of the same class, except perhaps many of the media are the domestic side of “foreign and domestic.”
There will be all sorts of folks asserting some sort of idealistic sanctity of free trade. The problem with that argument is we don’t currently have free trade. Every major Nation imposes all sorts of tariffs, duties, excise taxes and other trade restrictions. Some of the opposition is principled in that those making the arguments have consistently dome so for all trade restrictions but much is simply political opportunism and partisanship.
I’m in favor of policies that vigorously protect the U.S. economy, especially agriculture.
That F. Castro, Jr has his panties in a bunch tells me all I have to know about the wisdom of imposing tariffs.
Not having read The Art of the Deal or The Art of War or Win Bigly (which is like the Trump Owners Manual for understanding him) or anything else that would guide them in dancing with Mr. Trump, leaders like Trudeau find the nearest TV camera to vent their outrage.
It’s all negotiation. Find out what Trump wants, find out what he’d be willing to compromise on, make an offer, make another offer, offer until you have a deal, then pretend that the deal was what you wanted all along.
This isn’t difficult, folks.
Correct. The fact is, Trump has already told them what he wants. No illegals and no drugs crossing their border and into ours.
And now we want to add Border Patrol murdering trans€xual terrorists to the list.
If all we get is Trudeau out of office, that would be a win.
Canada is not a trade partner. They are an enemy on our borders. No friend, no trade partner, no ally would let illegal aliens and drugs to flow into their country, using it as a conduit to the US, and allow them to slip through our borders.
So, yes, we will “piss off” and I suggest we close the border, temporarily eject their foreign ministers, stop all passage across the border, and stop all trade.
Their “already weak” economy will feel it quickly, and then they will understand that when you bring enemies into our house, you are not welcome.
The canada part to me is interesting. The amount of fentanyl and illegal immigration is pretty small especially compared to china/mexico. I heard on the cbc it was less then 1% the total. Canada also proposed border reform when the tariffs were announced. So based on the magnitude of the issue it seems like fentanyl isn’t the issue with canada he really wants something else.
Long tern though i can see a world where canada expands its trading partners to help ensure they aren’t as susceptible to a trading partners cratering its economy. There was genuine fear and panic by the announcers on the cbc last night i dont remember ever seeing before.
Here’s a good article on ‘ the moron’s ‘ tariff policy.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/can-anyone-explain-americas-current-tariff-policy-to-me/
Can Anyone Explain America’s Current Tariff Policy to Me?
National Review?
They haven’t been interested in conservatism since WFB, Jr died at his desk.
Ahoy!
That article is not informative whatsoever and asks snarky questions such as “Who is going to collect the tariff?” Do you recall Trump creating an “External Revenue Service”? There’s your answer.
Trump’s tariff policy is a bit complicated so I’ll be more general than specific. There is a tariff loophole in federal law that exempts items that cost less than $800 from being accompanied by customs declaration forms and duties. Essentially, they are tax-free deliveries to your doorstep or duty free purchases at airports.
But the flip side is that there are countless packages shipped under this exemption that go unchecked. So China takes advantage by selling not only counterfeit products but the raw materials needed to make Fentanyl. That is why we have such a problem.
Part of Trump’s tariff policy is to now require Customs declaration forms on ALL packages and to pay a Customs duty on them. This will place the receivers of those packages under a lot of risk (read: jail time) and the flow of Fentanyl suffers a huge roadblock. Also, the Customs duties collected by External Revenue puts a dent in the one-way trade from China.
But the teeth of the tariff policy lies in the fact that the U.S. consumer market is what drives the economies of the world — especially China. They all need access to our market so any threat of tariff is taken very seriously. China, for example, devalued their currency during Trump’s first term in order to offset the effect of tariffs. That’s we we didn’t have a tRAdE wAR.
There’s a lot more but this is plenty to digest for now.
Even if you dumb it down, it’s still too tough for Jv tv to understand.
“moron”
Oh my, how clever! I think I’ll steal that and use it in my next post.
tjv1156 is a freaking “moron”!