Trump: Tariffs on Mexico and Canada will start on March 4. Plus an additional 10% for China!
President Donald Trump said Thursday that his proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada will take effect on March 4 and that China will be hit with an additional 10% tariff on the same date.
The 25% cross-border tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada were suspended on February 3 for a month. But the Trump administration has recently sowed confusion about whether they will be reinstated when the delays expire. In a post on Truth Social on Thursday morning, Trump clarified that they would.
He said, without providing evidence, that illegal drugs "are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels," despite promises from both of the U.S.'s neighbors to increase their efforts to control their borders.
"We cannot allow this disaster to continue to harm the United States, and therefore, until it is stopped, or severely limited, the proposed tariffs scheduled to take effect on MARCH 4th will go into effect, as planned ," Trump wrote.
He also announced that China, which already faces 10% US tariffs on its products, " will also be charged an additional 10% tariff on that date ." Trump added in his tweet, " The April 2nd reciprocal tariff date will remain in full force and effect."
A White House official confirmed later Thursday morning that the new tariffs on Beijing mean U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports will be 20%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures turned slightly negative after Trump's tweet, but rose when markets opened.
The president's tweet contradicted a timeline set about an hour earlier Thursday morning by the director of the White House National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett.
Citing Trump's public comments at his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Hassett said the president would decide on "tariff policy for all countries" after evaluating a study scheduled for release on April 1. Trump at that meeting "expanded by saying we're going to deal with Mexico and Canada, presumably at the same time we deal with everything else," Hassett said.
The president has made tariffs a core part of his second-term agenda, touting them as a supposed source of revenue and using them as a threat against other countries. In addition to tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, Trump has ordered global tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminum imports, which will take effect on March 12.
On February 13, Trump signed a presidential memorandum on his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign countries that have duties on U.S. imports. In addition to small tariffs, Trump's plan would treat several other policies, such as the use of value-added taxes, as unfair trade practices that warrant tariffs in response.
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