US President Donald Trump has confirmed tariffs on Canada and Mexico will come into force next week, as well as an additional 10% charge for China.
In a statement on Truth Social today (27 February), the President said that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports would go ahead as planned from 4 March.
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Trump had initially set out to impose 25% tariffs on imports from the two neighbouring countries at the start of this month.
Days before the expected implementation date, however, he paused the tariffs plan for both Canadian and Mexican goods after talks with both the country’s leaders.
In his Truth Social post today, Trump claimed drugs “made in, and supplied by, China”, were “pouring into” the US from Canada and Mexico “at very high and unacceptable levels”, and that tariffs would be implemented “until it stops, or is seriously limited”.
China, which is already facing a 10% levy, will also now see an additional 10% tariff slapped on from 4 March, Trump said.
He also said the “reciprocal tariff date” of 2 April for the US’ major trading partners “will remain in full force and effect”.
According to the BBC, Trump told reporters on Wednesday (26 February) that tariffs on the EU would also be revealed “very soon”, and that these would sit around “25% generally speaking and that will be on cars and other things”.
Earlier this month, in a statement on the US’s reciprocal tariff policy, the European Commission said it would “react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers to free and fair trade, including when tariffs are used to challenge legal and non-discriminatory policies”.
Both Canada and Mexico have said in the past that they would introduce retaliatory tariffs on US imports.
An official statement from the Government of Canada yesterday (26 February) confirmed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had discussed Canada-US relations and the country’s “fight against fentanyl” with Canada’s provincial premiers, as well as the “ongoing threat of unjustified tariffs”.
Neither Sheinbaum nor Trudeau had issued a statement on Trump’s decision today at the time of writing.
However, the Canadian government’s Wednesday statement said Trudeau “reiterated that Canada stands ready to respond if needed”.
Posting on X earlier today, Canadian food professor and researcher at Dalhousie University Dr. Sylvain Charlebois restated his opinion he first shared in January, that “tariffs on food and agricultural commodities will never happen”.
In a separate episode of Charlebois’s Food Professor Podcast, he also said: “I think the chaos is acceptable right now but for how long? And I think I’m starting to hear from the business community that tolerance is coming to an end”.
