WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that his plan for 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods is set to take effect this weekend — because “we don’t need what they have.”
“That’s coming on the 1st, Saturday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office — appearing to dash doubts that he would make good on his threat to slap levies on America’s neighbors over dangerous drug imports and illegal immigration.
The president, 78, did say that he “may or may not” exempt petroleum imports from the new charges.
“We’re going to make that determination probably tonight, on oil. Because they send us oil. We’ll see. It depends what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly, which they don’t.”
Trump initially threatened 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico in November, but that was initially assumed to be a bargaining tactic and the leaders of both countries rushed to assure him they would beef up border security.
“Look, Canada and Mexico, they have never been good to us on trade. They have treated us very unfairly on trade. And we will be able to make that up very quickly, because we don’t need the products that they have,” the president said Thursday.
“We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories. In oil, we have more than anybody and we don’t need anybody’s trees.”
Trump added: “We have to free up some of the tree areas that we have. We have great lumber in this country. We have to free them up environmentally, which I can do very quickly.”
The 45th and 47th president largely used tariff threats in his first term to knock down foreign trade policies he viewed as unfair — including threatening to tax French wine to shield US tech companies and impose an escalating wave of duties on China in a bid to force a major trade pact.
In 2018, Trump led a renegotiation of the 1994 NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico, resulting in the new USMCA deal that added labor standards designed to avoid undercutting US workers.
“We don’t need what they have,” the president insisted Thursday.
“And for us to be subsidizing Canada to the tune of $175 billion a year and subsidizing Mexico to the tune of $250 billion, $300 billion a year — and Mexico is a method of China sending in its product.”
Trump added that he’s still considering slapping fresh tariffs on China — after previously floating a new 10% levy.
“With China I’m also thinking about something, because they’re sending fentanyl into our country and because of that, they’re causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths,” he said.
“So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that and we’re in the process of doing that. We’ll make that determination when it’s going to be, but China has to stop sending fentanyl into our country and killing our people.”
Fentanyl produced largely in China and smuggled over US land borders and through the international mail system killed at least 281,000 Americans over the past four years, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data last updated in August.
