The trade war warms up after Trump orders Customs and Canada reciprocates

The United States and its largest trading partners threw into a new era with protectionism on Sunday when Canada, Mexico and China said they would adopt countermeasures against new tariffs charged by President Trump.

From honey to tomatoes and from clothing to toilet bowls, a wide range of US items crossing the border with Canada will worth more than $ 100 billion, will soon be hit with a 25 percent duty.

“We don’t want to be here,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a gloomy TV address from Ottawa on Saturday night, talking about the deep bonds between the neighbors. “We didn’t ask for this.”

On Sunday, China said it would “take similar countermeasures to the permanent protection of its rights and interests.” It also said it would take litigation with the World Trade Organization.

And in A video Published on Sunday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said she would reveal the first steps in her government’s so-called plan B plan on Monday if an agreement with the United States could not be reached. Ms. Sheinbaum previously warned of retaliatory- “Tariff- and not -nontariff -measure.”

The policy announced by Trump on Saturday hit Canada and Mexico with 25 percent tariffs on all goods, with a cut for Canadian energy and oil exports. These must be taxed by 10 percent. He also placed a 10 percent duty on Chinese goods.

He also ordered an end to Americans’ ability to buy up to $ 800 goods per day. Day from each country without paying customs duties. It was a battle for the giant companies that online businesses such as Temu and Shein have built by sending directly from factories in China to US homes and bypassing US retailers.

The taxes should take effect just after midnight on Tuesday and added on top of existing tariffs. Removal of duty -free treatment of small shipments from all three countries means that their buyers will have to start paying not only the new tariffs, but all the other many tariffs that have accumulated over the years on clothing and other consumer goods.

Mr. Trump defended customs on Sunday while recognizing they could have consequences. “Will there be any pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!), ”He said in a post in the morning on social media.

Mr. Trump has said customs are intended to reduce the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl across the border as well as migrants. (However, the traffic for both humans and illegal drugs from Canada is very small.) If there is financial pain, he suggested, it will be worth it.

Then Mr. Trump introduced customs duties in China during his first period in the White House, some studies found that some of the costs were transferred to US consumers. Suppliers in China also reduce their prices in many cases to offset part of the costs of the tariffs.

Most Republicans in Congress have kept silent or praised Mr. Trump’s tariffs, even when their voters express anxiety about rising prices.

Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, the rare Republican who regularly criticizes the president, was an exception again. “Tariffs are simply treasure,” he said on social media. “Conservatives once united against new taxes. Taxation of trade will mean less trade and higher prices. “

If other Republicans share Mr. Paul’s belief that the economy can take a hit, they kept it to themselves.

“Ohio is open to business and will roll out the red carpet for any business that manufactures in America!” Senator Bernie Moreno, Republican in Ohio, wrote on social media.

Party leaders also fell on line.

“I support what the president is doing,” said the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, John Barrasso from Wyoming, Sunday at Fox News. “We have to get rid of the fentanyl. We need to tell China as well as Mexico as well as Canada to get the fentanyl out of our country. “

Democrats spent the weekend hammering the message that Mr. Trump was responsible for making life in America more expensive.

“In a reckless move,” Representative Gabe Vasquez, Democrat in New Mexico, said, “President Avocados to Tequila. “

It was uncertain how much success China had to find in the World Trade Organization, which has lost much of its ability to deal with such legal challenges since the United States began to block the appointment of judges to it in Trump’s first period. WTO’s appeal body lost judges as their terms expired and have been unable to form a decision -makingness to hear cases since the end of 2019.

The organization may still form panels to prepare reports on the benefits of cases, but reports can no longer go to the appeal organ for a legally binding decision.

Then Mr. Trump imposed duty on Chinese goods during its first period, China replied every time with customs on US exports but Because China sells far more to the United States than it buys, it quickly ran out of goods to put tariffs on.

Last month, US law enforcement authorities called on the termination of duty -free shipments from China as they accused of allowing significant amounts of fentanyl and related supplies to the United States because the shipments receive little or no inspection of customs agents.

In a statement on Sunday, China’s Ministry of Commerce called on the US to “see and deal with its fentanyl and other questions in an objective and rational way instead of threatening other countries with customs.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended China’s record on the issue and said it had led the world when it introduced strict rules of fentanyl -related drugs in 2019.

The true cause of the epidemic of fentanian falls in the United States, China has claimed is an American failure in limiting drug addiction, not the large production or export of China of chemicals used mainly by illegal laboratories in Mexico to produce the drug.

Ms. Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, took a similar attitude Sunday.

“If they want to act,” she said, “they shouldn’t put their views on Mexico, but on their own country where they have done nothing to stop the illegal sale of this and other drugs.”

Ms. Sheinbaum said she was still waiting for Mr. Trump’s response to his offer to establish a working group of security and health officials from both countries to tackle the fentanyl problem.

In the announcement of the new Canadian customs rates on Saturday, Mr. Trudeau directly on the Americans and said that the US tariffs on Canadian goods would hurt them as well.

“This is a choice that, yes, will hurt Canadians, but beyond that it will have real consequences for you, the American people,” he said. “As I have consistently said: Tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk and potentially close US Auto Assembly and other production facilities.”

The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia announced that they would draw American, beer, wine and spirits from government -owned spirits. Liquor Control Board of Ontario imports approx. 1 billion Canadian dollars – approx. $ 690 million – worth US products every year.

A Canadian province took a more targeted approach and designated areas of the United States where support for Mr. Trump’s policy has been particularly strong.

In British Columbia, Prime Minister David Eby announced that the province would stop the sale of alcohol produced in “Red States.”

Annie Karni contributed with reporting from Washington, Ian Austen from Windsor, Ontario and James Wagner from Mexico City,