President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday night he will sign a series of executive orders on his first day in office to impose new duties of 25% on all imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% added tariffs on goods from China.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
In a follow-up post moments later, the incoming president said a 10% tariff “above any additional Tariffs” would also be applied to Chinese goods. Trump previously stated during the presidential campaign that he would levy an additional tariff of 60% on all Chinese imports. Further, more than half of China’s exports to the U.S. are already subject to tariffs introduced during Trump’s first term and maintained under President Biden.
The Trump transition did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the 10% tariff would be in addition to, or instead of, a 60% tariff.
The new tariffs, Trump added, will remain in effect until the countries take steps to prevent the shipment of fentanyl to the U.S. from within their borders and, in Mexico and Canada’s case, to tighten border security and curtail crossing from undocumented migrants.
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump wrote. “We hereby demand that they use this power.”
Trump has also said during the campaign that he would impose an across-the-board tariff of up to 20% on all U.S. imports, regardless of origin.
“I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail,” Trump wrote in the second post.
Vice President-elect JD Vance echoed Trump's comments in a post to X.
"It’s important for our friends and neighbors to not let poison into our country. If they fail to meet this basic obligation they’re going to pay up," Vance wrote.
Chinese Embassy Spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Agri-Pulse in an email via an aide that Beijing has been cooperating with the U.S. on counternarcotic efforts since President Xi Jinping and President Biden agreed to work on curbing fentanyl production at their 2023 meeting in California.
"The Chinese side has notified the U.S. side of the progress made in US-related law enforcement operations against narcotics. China has responded to U.S. request[s] for verifying clues on certain cases and taken action," Pengyu said. "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."
Additionally, Pengyu warned that neither the U.S. nor China would benefit from the resumption of tit-for-tat tariff escalations.
"China believes that China-Us economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. No one will win a trade war or a tariff war," Pengyu added.
The Canadian and Mexican embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to Agri-Pulse’s request for comment on the announcements.
The three countries are the largest export markets for U.S. agriculture. Notably, Trump negotiated the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement during his first term in office, supporting tariff-free trade between the three North American markets.
"The President-elect seems to forget the 'best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA,'" the House Ways and Means Democrats posted to X after Trump's announcement, quoting from comments Trump made in 2019 touting the agreement. "Now, he’s intentionally raising prices on the American people."
The former and future president is not the first to propose using tariffs to spur action from China to stem fentanyl shipments. A coalition of fentanyl awareness groups and families of fentanyl victims filed a petition with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative last month calling for an investigation into China’s role in the fentanyl crisis and recommending a series of countermeasures to trigger a crackdown from Beijing. Among the menu of countermeasures the groups recommended were new tariffs or import bans on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The petition has received support from several Democratic senators, including the incoming ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
