Trump tariffs of 25% on Canada, Mexico set to kick in March 4

Donald Trump, president of the United States, has announced that his proposed 25-percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will go into effect on March 4 and has threatened to add an additional 10 percent duty on Chinese imports because he claims that deadly drugs are still being imported into the US from those nations.

Trump&nbsp announced the addition of 10% tariff on Chinese goods on March 4 in a post on his Truth Social website on Thursday. Due to the fentanyl-oxetine crisis, he levied a 10% tariff on imports from China on February 4. This would add to this.

Trump said drugs, namely fentanyl, were still coming into the US at “very high and unacceptable levels”, with a large percentage of them the deadly opioid fentanyl.

“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled”, Trump added. &nbsp, “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date”.

Trump sowed some of the confusion at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when he appeared to suggest that he might delay the deadline by about a month until April 4. Those comments on Thursday helped to clear up some of the air.

However, later comments from Trump administration officials suggested that the April deadline was for Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” to offset other countries’ import duty rates and offset their other restrictions. Value-added taxes (VAT) in Europe are viewed by his trade advisers as being comparable to tariffs.

Kevin Hassett, the top White House economic adviser, told CNBC television&nbsp, on Thursday that&nbsp, Trump would determine new tariffs after a study is completed by April 1.

Given that his administration believes there hasn’t been enough progress to reduce fentanyl deaths, Trump made the decision to add the additional tariffs to China and stick to the Tuesday deadline for Canada and Mexico, a White House official told Reuters.

“There are ongoing discussions with the Chinese, Mexico and Canada. The official said that while the immigration issue has been addressed, there are still concerns regarding the other issue of fentanyl deaths.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 72, 776 people died from synthetic opioids in 2023 in the US, chiefly from fentanyl.

Tariff, border talks

On Thursday and Friday in Washington, DC, Canadian and Mexican officials were scheduled to meet with Trump administration counterparts in an effort to halt the tariffs, which could seriously affect the country’s highly integrated economy.

On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will meet with Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard and newly appointed US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

In Canada, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said on Thursday that the progress Canada has made on tightening security along the border with the United States and combating drug smuggling&nbsp, should satisfy&nbsp, the Trump administration.

Before two days of meetings with US officials in Washington, McGuinty declared in televised remarks that “any test on those metrics had been “met” that “the evidence is irrefutable … progress is being made.”

In a statement, the Canada Border Services Agency announced a targeted, cross-country initiative to stop illegal drugs entering and leaving the country, with an emphasis on fentanyl and other synthetic narcotics.