Trump pledges to go ahead with 25% tariffs on Canada, Mexico from Saturday
Trump said he “may or may not” remove oil from the tariffs and that he would make a decision “probably tonight” when he addressed reporters at the White House on Thursday.
Trump stated at the Oval Office, “We’re going to make that determination about oil probably tonight.
“Because they send us oil. We’ll see, it depends on what their price is”.
Trump predicted that the US would be able to “very quickly” replace any import losses.
“Because we don’t need the products they have. We have all the oil you need”, he said.
More than half of US crude oil imports were made by Canada alone in 2023, with Mexico accounting for an additional 11 percent, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
In an effort to reassure Washington that they are committed to addressing its concerns over border security, both Canada and Mexico have pledged to do the same in response to US tariffs in kind.
Trump first made the announcement to start imposing the tariffs shortly after winning the November election, citing the border’s flow of illegal immigrants and immigrants crossing.
Trump made a proposal for the tariffs’ starting date of February 1 shortly after his January 20 inauguration.
Trump also stated at the time that he was considering imposing a 10% tariff on China to compel Beijing to stop selling the synthetic fentanyl.
Trump claimed on Thursday that he was “thinking about” doing something about China because fentanyl “caused us hundreds of thousands of deaths.”
He said, “China will end up paying a tariff for that as well, and we are currently doing that.”
Source: Aljazeera
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