CMEDIA: U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly announced his plans to impose tariffs Canadian goods effective Feb 1, says White House
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada’s response to US tariffs on Saturday would be immediate and forceful.
“No one — on either side of the border — wants to see American tariffs on Canadian goods,” he wrote on X.
Tariffs are a way to emphasize the United States’ trade deficit with Canada, said Trump and added he would use economic force to turn Canada into the 51st state.
A two-stage tariff plan for Canada and Mexico has been revealed by the U.S. in which initial trade threats begin within days, then again face broader threats this spring.
In her first-ever White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said based on her conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump, his plan to slap 25 per cent tariffs on Canada on Feb. 1 is ‘still on the books.’
The details of the two phases of the tariffs emerged Wednesday at the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for the person chosen to lead President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, Howard Lutnick.
Phase 1 being essentially an emergency action to deal with the fentanyl crisis, Lutnick explained while the second phase would be a broad range of tariff options, which will be informed by a study the president has demanded from his officials by April 1.
Leavitt said on Friday that Trump’s move for tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China was because “fentanyl that has been seized at the southern border in the last two years alone has the potential to kill tens of millions of Americans.”
Although only about one percent of illegal drugs entering the U.S. is coming from its northern border, U.S. officials are worried about growing drug production in Canada, and the failure to crack down on money-laundering activities by international criminal organizations there by the Canadian law-enforcement.
