The President Donald Trump celebrated his commercial threats on Saturday By imposing 25% tariffs on products from their immediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico, in addition to another 10% tariff for China products. The measure was signed in three executive orders separately in Trump’s private residence in Mar-A-Lago in Florida, and will enter into force exactly at 00:01 on Tuesday, February 4 at Washington hours (05:01 GMT) . In all cases the argument used has been the involvement of one or another way of the three countries in the Fentanyl traffic and other drugs Towards the United States “where social fabric endangers”, with very thick accusations against the governments of Mexico and Beijing.
The three orders contained a threat so that affected countries do not respond With similar measures of retaliation, under penalty of raising the percentage of tariffs or the scope of the products, but Both Canada and Mexico ignored their own measures after a few hours.
An “intolerable drug trafficking alliance”
In Mexico, the allusion that drug trafficking posters “have an intolerable alliance with the Government of Mexico (which) endangers the National Security of the United States”, contained in the same executive order. To which President Claudia Shienbaum responded in X: “We categorically rejected the slander that the White House does to the Mexico Government to have alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any interference intention in our territory,” Sheinbaum said in a long message posted in The social network X.
He didn’t stay there, and Sheinbaum announced “tariff and non -tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests”something that supposed what “Plan B” called and that the Secretary of Economy will apply in the next days.
For Mexico, trade with the United States is so important that in 2023 exports to the US were almost 30 % of Mexican GDP in 2023, according to a report by the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO).
Canada at risk of recession
Nor did Canada stayed with a crossed arms: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau soon announced Trump’s decision that Your government will adopt reprisals and tax with 25% the equivalent of 155,000 million dollars (about 149,584 million euros) in trade with the US.
As advanced by the Canadian leader, as of Tuesday, Canada will tax 30,000 million dollars of American imports. Another 121,000 million trade will be taxed 21 days later “to allow Canadian companies and supply chains Look for alternatives“.
The decision has been considered by Canada as a COMMERCIAL WAR DECLARATION. Analysts have indicated that if the tariffs are maintained, Canada could enter recession in six months.
Trump’s decision, despite having been anticipated on multiple occasions, is considered a torpedo in the T-MEC flotation line, the Free Trade Agreement that links the three American countries since 1994 under the premise of free trade, which Today jumps through the air. Trudeau and Sheinbaum have already spoken this afternoon to coordinate a common position.
Chinese criticism
Chinese authorities have spoken against tariffs criticizing that A commercial war would not favor either of the two countries or the rest of the world. “China has always believed that there is no winner in a commercial or tariff war, and remains firm to defend their national interests,” said the spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, MAO NO, in statements collected by the Xinhua agency.
Along the same lines, the country’s ministry spokesman, He Yadong, has defended that “China’s position on the tariff issue is consistent” while “tariff measures do not favor interests or China or the United States nor from the rest of the world. “
China suffered serious accusations against his government contained in the executive order established by tariffs. In it, the White House not only blamed China on Saturday in drug trafficking to the United States, but went further and said that the Asian country “actively maintains and expands the business of poisoning our citizens.”
He also accused the Chinese Communist Party (Unique Party) of “subsidizing and encouraging Chinese chemical companies to export fentanyl and chemical precursors used to produce synthetic opioids sold illegally in the United States.” Reason that a country that takes “extraterritorial freedoms to threaten, harass and suppress political dissent” could perfectly reduce opioid traffic, “but simply does not want to do it,” he concludes.
And as Donald Trump already warned in previous days, today the White House makes an official one Threat to China -The same as Canada already Mexico- against any temptation to pay with the same currency. “If China retaliates against the US in response to this measure by imposing measures similar to US exports there, the president may increase (tariffs) or expand their reach to ensure the effectiveness of this action.”
