With President-elect Donald Trump set to return to the White House later this month, there has been a fair amount of attention focused on his plans regarding tariffs, a key cornerstone of his economic agenda.
As reported in LM, in posts made on his Truth Social platform in late November, Trump said that, effective January 20, when he takes office, that he will sign an Executive Order, calling for a 25% tariff on all U.S.-bound imports from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional 10% tariff on all U.S.-bound imports from China.
Regarding tariffs placed on Canada, a December Bloomberg report stated that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that should the U.S. impose new tariffs on U.S.-bound Canadian imports, Canada will respond with retaliatory tariffs, as it did in 2018, following tariffs placed on Canadian steel and aluminum, a move called successful by Trudeau in the report.
“Let’s not kid ourselves in any way, shape or form: 25% tariffs on everything going to the United States would be devastating for the Canadian economy,” said Trudeau in the report, adding that the tariffs would also raise costs on a wide range of goods the U.S. gets from Canada. He also noted that Canada will “respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways, and we’re still looking at the right ways to respond, but our responses to the unfair steel and aluminum tariffs were what ended up lifting those tariffs last time.”