Trump -Told on Canada, Mexico and China begins Saturday, the White House says

In an apparent end to weeks of intense speculation, the White House confirmed on Friday that President Donald Trump will smooth out aggressive tariffs this weekend on major US trading partners.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary said that Trump will implement 25% duty on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10% duty on China, in return for “the illegal fentanyl that they have picked up and allowed to distribute into our country .

The White House provided few details of exactly how the charges will be fulfilled and said they will be available for public inspection at some point Saturday.

The news sent Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 300 points or approx. 0.7%. The S&P 500 traded slightly lower, and Nasdaq Composite acted marginally higher. All three major benchmarks rose solidly earlier in the day.

“These are promises that are given and promises held by the president,” Leavitt said.

There was no word about potential exceptions to customs; The White House denied a previous Reuters report that at least there would be some exclusions rather than just carpet measures covering all products and that the tariffs would be delayed until March 1.

Together, the United States makes about $ 1.6 trillion in annual business with the three countries. Trump seeks to use tariffs as both negotiating chips and methods to influence foreign policy changes, specifically immigration and drug dealings.

“We’ve got the Super Bowl up, and creepy, the amount of people that fit in (New Orleans) Superdome is almost exactly equal to the number of people dying every year here in America from Fentanyl, and it comes from China and Mexico, “Trump trading adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC in an interview earlier Friday. “This is the reason why we have this kind of discussions.”

Economists worry that tariffs could re -adjust inflation at a time when it seems that price pressure is starting to reduce. The trade department reported on Friday that inflation that was read closely monitored by the Federal Reserve increased to 2.6% in December, but the details of the report seemed more positive.

However, bold officials have said they monitor the impact of fiscal policy.

“It will be very important to have a better sense of actual policies and how they will be implemented, in addition to greater confidence in how the economy will react,” said Fed Governor Michelle Bowman.

In a speech with CNBC on Friday morning, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said the key will be whether the tariffs are disposable events or lead in retaliation.