The United States and the largest trading partners arrived in a new era of protectionism on Sunday, because Canada, Mexico and China said they would take countermeasures against new rates levied by President Trump.
From honey to tomatoes, and from clothing to toilet bowls, a wide range of American goods that cross the border to Canada, worth more than $ 100 billion, will soon be hit with a rate of 25 percent.
“We don't want to be here,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday night in a gloomy television address from Ottawa in which he spoke about the deep ties between the neighbors. “We didn't ask for this.”
On Sunday, China said that “corresponding countermeasures would take to protect its rights and interests firmly.” It also said that it would take legal steps at the World Trade Organization.
And in a video that was released on Sunday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said that she would unveil the first steps of the government's so-called Plan Plan on Monday if an agreement with the United States could not be reached. Mrs. Sheinbaum previously warned of retribution “rate and not -Tariff measures.”
The policy announced by Mr Trump on Saturday, Canada and Mexico met with rates of 25 percent on all goods, with a carve-out for Canadian energy and oil exports. They must be taxed at 10 percent. He also placed a rate of 10 percent on Chinese goods.
He also ordered an end to the ability of Americans to buy up to $ 800 goods per day from each country without paying rates. It was a blow to the gigantic companies that have built online companies such as Temu and Shein by sending directly from factories in China to American houses, which bypassed American retailers.
The taxes must come into effect on Tuesday and will be added on top of existing rates. Removing tax -free treatment for small shipments from all three countries means that their buyers not only have to start paying the new rates, but all other rates that have gathered over the years on clothing and other consumer goods.
Mr. Trump defended the rates on Sunday, acknowledged that they could have repercussions. “Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!), “He said in an early morning post on social media.
Mr. Trump said that the rates are intended to reduce the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl across the border, as well as of migrants. (The traffic of both people and illegal drugs from Canada is very small.) If there is economic pain, he suggested, it will be worth it.
When Mr. Trump imposed rates on China during his first term in the White House, some studies discovered that part of the costs was passed on to American consumers. In many cases, suppliers in China have also reduced their prices to compensate for part of the costs of the rates.
Most Republicans in the congress have been stopped or praised the rates of Mr Trump, even while their voters are concerned about rising prices.
Senator Rand Paul van Kentucky, the rare Republican who regularly criticizes the president, was again an exception. “Rates are just taxes,” he said on social media. “Conservatives once united against new taxes. Puriating trade means less trade and higher prices. “
If other Republicans share Mr. Paul's conviction that the economy can take a hit, they have kept it to themselves.
“Ohio is open to business and will roll out the red carpet for every production production in America!” Senator Bernie Moreno, Republican of Ohio, wrote on social media.
Party leaders also fell in line.
“I support what the president does,” said the number 2 Republican in the Senate, John Barrasso van Wyoming, Sunday at Fox News. “We have to get rid of the fentanyl. We have to tell both China and Mexico and Canada to get the fentanyl from our country. “
Democrats spent the weekend hammering the message that Mr. Trump was responsible for the life of life in America.
“In a reckless move,” said representative Gabe Vasquez, Democrat of New Mexico, “the president has just raised the price you pay for gas, the truck you drive to work, a computer for your small company and everything in the Supermarket, from avocados to tequila. “
It was insecure how much success China could find at the World Trade Organization, which has lost much of its ability to take on such legal challenges, since the United States began to block the appointment of judges in the first term of Mr Trump. The appellate body of the WTO lost judges as their terms and conditions have expired and have not been able to form a quorum since the end of 2019 to hear things.
The organization can still form panels to collect reports about the merits of cases, but reports can no longer go to the main text for a legally binding decision.
When Mr. Trump imposed rates on Chinese goods during his first term, China responded with rates about American exports every time, but Because China sells much more to the United States than it buys, it soon no longer had any goods to set up rates.
Last month, American law enforcement officers called to the tax -free shipments from China, which they blame for allowing considerable amounts of fentanyl and related supplies to the United States because the shipments received little or no inspection by customs trees.
In a statement on Sunday, the Chinese Ministry of Trade urged the United States to “view and tackle his fentanyl and other issues in an objective and rational way, instead of threatening other countries with rates”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended China's record on the issue and said it had led the world when it imposed strict rules on Fentanyl-related substances in 2019.
The true cause of the epidemic of fentanyylsterfares in the United States has argued, is an American failure to curb drug addiction, not the large -scale production or export of chemicals that are mainly used by illegal laboratories in Mexico to make the drug .
Mrs. Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, took a similar attitude on Sunday.
“If they want to act,” she said, “they should not set their sights on Mexico, but on their own country, where they have done nothing to stop the illegal sale of these and other drugs.”
Mrs. Sheinbaum said that she was still waiting for Mr Trump's answer to her offer to set up a working group of security and health officials from both countries to tackle the fentanyl problem.
When announcing the new Canadian rates on Saturday, Mr. Trudeau spoke to Americans directly and said that the American rates on Canadian goods would also harm them.
“This is a choice that, yes, Canadians will harm, but otherwise it will have real consequences for you, the American people,” he said. “As I said consistently: the rates against Canada will jeopardize your jobs, making the American car assembly factories and other production facilities possible.”
The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia announced that they would get Americans, beer, wine and spirits from liquor stores in the government. The Liquor Control Board from Ontario imports around 1 billion Canadian dollars – around $ 690 million – to American products every year.
A Canadian province has chosen a more targeted approach and choosing areas from the United States where the support for Mr Trump's policy has been particularly strong.
In British Columbia, the Prime Minister, David Eby, announced that the province would stop selling alcohol that is produced in 'Red States'.
Annie Karni Contributions from reporting from Washington, Ian Austen from Windsor, Ontario, and James Wagner from Mexico City,
