The president of the United States, Donald Trump, gave the surprise this Thursday night (Washington time) by publishing on his social network, Truth, a letter in which he communicated to Canada, preferential commercial partner, his threat of imposing a tariff of 35% and that he enters into force on August 1. An advertisement of that magnitude did not appear in the forecasts, which is a huge climbing in the commercial war declared by Trump since its return to the White House almost six months ago, time in which it has deployed an aggressive, erratic and unpredictable economic policy.
The letter does not specify whether or not that tax will affect the products protected by the Mexican-United States-Canada (TMEC) Free Trade Agreement, which Trump himself signed during his first administration and has threatened to break several times from his return to power.
In the text of the letter, addressed to the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, the president of the United States resorts to an old difficult argument to buy: the “National Fentanyl Crisis.” Washington blames his northern neighbor of not doing enough to stop traffic of the powerful opioid, whose consumption in the United States has caused hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years.
Trump specifies that the new tariff, with which he threatens Canada while the negotiations of a new commercial agreement with the United States continue, is independent of the “sectoral” taxes. That is, rates to cars (25%) continue to apply, as well as steel, aluminum and copper (50%), all of them, especially sensitive sectors for Ottawa. The letter also warns that if Carney takes retaliation measures in the form of reciprocal tariffs, they will be answered with a 35% more rate to the goods exported to the United States.
“If Canada works with me to stop the Fentanyl flow, perhaps consider a review of the terms of this letter. These tariffs can be modified, up or down, depending on our relationship with your country. You will never feel disappointed with the United States,” concludes Trump’s letter. He case of war Chosen by Trump is rather laughable: in 2024, the border authorities were seized 18 kilos of fentanyl in the LINDE with Canada, in front of the ton discovered trying to enter from Mexico.
The letter to Canada joins the 22 sent between Monday and Wednesday to many other countries: a list that includes large commercial partners, such as South Korea or Japan, and a squad of countries, from Moldova to Algeria, and from Iraq to Kazakhstan, of much smaller size. To all of them threatens with a tariff, in a fork that goes from 20% to 40%, everyone tells them that there is still space to negotiate an agreement that softens those rates, whenever it is before August 1, the new deadline chosen by the US president, which has changed his mind several times and nothing indicates that he cannot do so many others.
Side mention deserves the case of Brazil. Trump has hit the Latin American country, with which there is no commercial deficit, with a 50% tariff and a different justification than the others: the treatment that former president Jair Bolsonaro is receiving, who is accused of a plot to organize the January 2023 coup, a few months after losing the elections. He faces 43 years in prison, and his friend, the US president, believes he is the victim of a “witch hunt.”
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