Mexico, China, And Canada Have Strong Response For Trump's Tariff Proposal

One of the election promises that incoming President Donald Trump campaigned on centered around building up American industry and jobs. He promised to do this through what he called "the most beautiful word in the English language — tariffs." It turns out the President-elect was serious about this threat.

Just after his election victory, President-elect Trump reiterated on Truth Social his commitment to establishing substantial tariff rates on imports originating from Canada and Mexico. Trump announced on the social media platform that "On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders." He further pledged to make good on his promise to add another 10% in tariffs on imports from China. According to Trump, the duties are intended to reduce huge levels of both illegal immigration and incoming drugs like fentanyl as the BBC reported.

Unsurprisingly the three implicated nations started their pushback efforts a day following Trump's announcement of his goals. Neighboring Canada and Mexico hit back hard with arguments and their own threats against the tariffs. China further responded by warning against a retaliation that could lead to a trade war.

Canada took the most dramatic action of the three nations in response to the threatened tariffs on its exports to America. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed that he talked with President-elect Donald Trump several hours after the tariff announcement. Trudeau next held meetings with Canada's provincial leaders to formulate a response, per the BBC reporting. The Canadian prime minister flew down to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida to meet with Trump on the issue, pointing out that the number of illegal immigrants crossing from Canada to the U.S. was far smaller than those crossing the Mexican border.

The new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum only took office in October. She issued a reasoned quote in response to the promised tariffs on Mexican goods, pointing out that American car makers manufacture some of their car parts in Mexico. Sheinbaum remarked that, "If tariffs go up, who will it hurt? General Motors. To one tariff will follow another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk." There are five goods we buy from Mexico that will especially be affected by the proposed tariffs.

President Sheinbaum later warned that if import barriers are erected on Mexican goods, then Mexico will respond by placing its own tariffs on American imports. The Mexican president then offered Trump an olive branch on the immigration issue. She promised that Mexico had already made efforts to reduce illegal immigration to the U.S. so that "caravans of migrants no longer reach the border."

China is already laboring under tariffs from the first Donald Trump term continued by the Biden administration, as the BBC reports. The country has felt the impacts of these trade barriers for nearly a decade already. The Chinese pride themselves on their diplomatic tact and appeared to exercise more restraint in their initial response to the additional tariff threats.

Chinese Washington embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu informed the BBC that "China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. China has responded to U.S. requests for verifying clues on certain cases and taken action. All these prove that the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality."

Spokesman Pengyu went on to share China's take on retaliatory tariffs that would likely spiral out of control if such policies are expanded upon in the near future. "No one will win a trade war or a tariff war," he warned. Despite the strong responses of the Chinese, Canadians, and Mexicans to the threatened Trump tariffs, it appears that such a trade war could be in the cards. You might want to buy these items before tariffs take effect.