US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to impose steep tariffs on the United States’ three biggest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, outlining how he will deliver on campaign promises that could spark trade wars.
Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on products from Mexico and Canada until they crack down on drug trafficking, especially fentanyl, and illegal border crossings by migrants. He also vowed to impose an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, a move that appears to violate a free trade agreement between the three countries.
“On January 20th, as part of my first of many executive orders, I will sign all necessary documents to impose a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social late Monday.
The president-elect also accused China of not taking strong enough action to stop the flow of illegal drugs crossing the border into the United States from Mexico.
“Until they stop this, we will be imposing a 10% tariff on China, on top of any additional tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” Trump said.
The tariffs could also cause problems for foreign companies, such as the many Asian auto and electronics manufacturers that use Mexico as a low-cost production base and gateway to the U.S. market.
The new tariffs threatened by Trump appear to violate the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which Trump signed in 2020 and has largely continued duty-free trade between the three countries.
After Trump threatened to impose tariffs, he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss trade and border security, according to a Canadian source familiar with the matter, who said it was “a good discussion and they will stay in touch.”
Meanwhile, Mexican Chamber of Deputies Speaker Ricardo Monreal, a member of the ruling Morena party, called for “the use of bilateral and institutional mechanisms to combat human, drug and arms trafficking.”
“Escalating trade retaliation will only hurt people’s money and will not solve the underlying problems,” he said in a post on the social media platform X.
Liu Bingyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, commented that Beijing “believes that economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States is inherently mutually beneficial, and no one will win a trade or a tariff war.”
The embassy also pointed to steps it said Beijing has taken since a U.S.-China meeting in 2023, after which the country agreed to crack down on the export of precursors used to make the opioid fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.
“All of this proves that the idea that China knowingly allowed the flow of fentanyl precursors into the United States is completely at odds with the facts and reality,” the spokesman said.
Trump had previously vowed to impose tariffs on Chinese imports of more than 60%, far higher than those imposed during his first term.
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