U.S. President Donald Trump says he may impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1.
Trump, who had said after his election in November that he would impose the tariffs unless the two countries stopped the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs through their borders into the United States, didn’t immediately start the tariffs on his first day in office. But he indicated that they may be coming soon.
“We’re thinking in terms of 25 percent on Mexico and Canada, because they’re allowing vast numbers of people—Canada is a very bad abuser also—vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in,” Trump told reporters while signing executive orders at the White House on his first day on the job on Jan. 20.
“I think we’ll do it Feb. 1,” the president added when asked about the timing of the tariffs.
Earlier in the day, his team said the president wouldn’t be imposing new tariffs on day one of his presidency, and instead would direct federal agencies to “investigate and remedy persistent trade deficits and address unfair trade and currency policies by other nations.”
During his inauguration speech, Trump alluded to the issue of imposing tariffs on other countries, and talked about a new External Revenue Service he will create to collect the tariffs. The agency is modelled after the Internal Revenue Service, which is responsible for the collection of taxes from Americans.
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“I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump said in his speech.
“We are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources.”
Reacting to the update, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada will continue to take action on the border to boost security, while preparing for retaliatory measures.
“We have been, of course, working on retaliation,” Joly said at a press conference late on Jan. 20 while at a cabinet retreat in Montebello, Que. The meeting was held on the same day as Trump’s inauguration to primarily focus on the issue of the tariffs and prepare for different scenarios.
Joly added that her government is also working on a “long-term response.”
The federal government has announced a $1.3 billion plan to boost border security in response to Trump’s concerns. The plan includes the creation of new security units and deploying additional helicopters and drones to the border, among several other measures.
Speaking at the same press conference, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the announcement about the tariffs possibly coming on Feb. 1 shouldn’t come as a surprise.
“The one thing we’ve learned is that President Trump, at moments, can be unpredictable,” LeBlanc said.
Any U.S. tariffs would also increase costs for Americans and lead to job losses, LeBlanc said, adding that while his government continues to speak to U.S. officials about the actions it has taken to secure the border and avoid the tariffs, Canada remains ready to respond in kind.
“The premiers were in Ottawa last week, we agreed on a series of measures that we could enact if the United States government decides to do this,” he said.
‘Governor’
During his media appearance while signing executive orders, Trump also repeated his allusion to Canada as America’s 51st state by referring to Trudeau as “governor.”
He made the comment while responding to a question about which world leader he intends to call first.
“I met with Prime Minister Trudeau—who I call Governor Trudeau. I met with numerous foreign leaders.”
Trump first made the comment about Canada joining the United States when Trudeau went to visit him in late November at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in an effort to avert the tariffs.
Trump has repeated the comment on different occasions since then, saying at one point during a Jan. 7 press conference that he would use “economic force” to have Canada merge with the United States.
Trudeau said in response that “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell” for Canada to become part of the United States.
