Canadian, Mexican leaders stress cooperation after Trump's tariff threat | International Trade News
The leaders of Mexico and Canada are urging dialogue and cooperation after US President-elect Donald Trump promised to impose 25 percent tariffs on both countries when he takes office early next year.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she plans to send a letter to Trump emphasizing the need to work together on shared challenges.
“For one currency will come another and another until we put our normal businesses at risk,” Sheinbaum said, warning that tariffs would cause inflation and job losses in both countries.
In a post on social media Monday evening, Trump said he plans to “impose a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada on ALL products entering the United States”.
“This tax will remain in effect until such time that Drugs, especially Fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have every right and power to easily resolve this long-standing problem.”
He also said he plans to impose “an additional 10% tariff, on top of any additional tariffs” on Beijing, which Washington considers its biggest rival in the world.
Trump, who won the November 5 presidential election over Democratic rival Kamala Harris, had repeatedly said in his 2024 campaign that he would raise tariffs on everything coming into the US.
The former president and his supporters have presented the tax policy as an important tool to bring back jobs and manufacturing from overseas. Experts said, however, that the move would increase costs for Americans.
On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that he spoke with Trump on Monday evening after the Republican's online posting. Trudeau said he emphasized the long-standing relationship between the two countries.
“We discussed some of the challenges we can face together. It was a good call,” he said, adding: “This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of work, and that's what we're going to do.”
The Liberal Party leader, whose popularity has plummeted in the past few years amid the high cost of living and the housing crisis, is under pressure from conservative politicians at the federal and state levels to resolve any issues before Trump takes office.
“The federal government needs to take this situation at our border seriously,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford in a social media post Monday night.
Danielle Smith, premier of the right-wing Canadian oil-producing province of Alberta, also said Trump has “sound problems” with the US-Canada border, which is 6,416 kilometers (3,987 miles) away.
“As the largest exporter of oil and gas to the US, we look forward to working with the new administration to strengthen the energy security of the US and Canada,” he wrote in X.
A 25 percent tariff would hurt workers and jobs in Canada and the US
The federal government needs to take this situation at our border seriously. We need Team Canada's approach and response—and we need it now. Prime Minister Trudeau must immediately call…
– Doug Ford (@fordnation) November 26, 2024
Trudeau said Tuesday he spoke with Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault and plans to call a meeting with provincial leaders to discuss the US.
“There is work to be done, but we know how to do it,” added the prime minister.
The US and Canada are each other's biggest trading partners, exchanging about $2.7bn ($3.6bn Canadian) in goods and services across their shared border every day by 2023, according to Canadian government figures.
Meanwhile, US goods and services traded with Mexico are worth an estimated $855bn by 2022, the US Trade Representative's Office said.
The three countries signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was signed in 2020 when Trump was president to replace the long-standing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The Mexican peso weakened 1.3 percent in early trade on Tuesday after the US president-elect's comments.
At his press conference, Sheinbaum said his administration has consistently demonstrated Mexico's willingness to help fight the fentanyl epidemic in the US and that fears of migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border have decreased.
However, Sheinbaum noted that criminal gangs in Mexico were still getting guns from the US. He said the shared challenges in the region require cooperation, dialogue and mutual understanding.
“We do not produce weapons. We don't consume synthetic drugs,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have people who are dying of crimes that meet the need in your country.”
