President Donald Trump affirmed on Thursday that imports from U.S. allies Mexico and Canada will be hit with a 25 percent tariff starting on Saturday.
Speaking to the press from the Oval Office, Trump said that his administration will follow through in announcing tariffs on America’s neighboring countries for “a number of reasons”—chiefly among them being an alleged influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, reported The Hill.
On his first day in office, Trump issued a proclamation declaring a state of emergency at America’s southern border.
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Thirty-six hours later, the declaration enabled the Department of Defense to send 1,500 troops to the region to work on the placement of barriers and other related actions to deter illegal crossings. According to DOD report, the troops were on standby in Southern California to help combat the Los Angeles County wildfires.
“For the past four years, the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to enforce the border, resulting in a catastrophic immigration crisis for the United States,” declared Trump’s proclamation. However, when Congress was close to passing a bipartisan border security bill in 2024, Trump allegedly pressured Republican allies to kill the bill so he could continue hammering Democrats about border chaos during his campaign, reported CNN.
Trump also cited an influx of drugs, specifically fentanyl, crossing into the United States—as well as a trade deficit—as reason for implementing tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
“I’ll be putting the tariff of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico, and we will really have to do that because we have very big deficits with those countries,” he said. “Those tariffs may or may not rise with time.”
Mexico and Canada are major exporters of gas, food and automobiles to the U.S., with several U.S.-based automobile manufacturers shipping cars back and forth across America’s borders during the manufacturing process.
The president said that his administration has not yet decided on whether it would levy tariffs on oil imports, reported Reuters.
“We may or may not. We’re going to make that determination probably tonight,” said Trump. He added that this would partly depend on prices and on whether the two countries “treat us properly.”
