The tariffs of President Donald Trump for Canada and Mexico sparked panic and conviction of the top trading partners of the United States, the taxes said that the taxes would destroy the economy of North America and destroy an 80-year-old pact.
Politicians, managing directors and trade associations in all three countries reacted with unbelief, warning The tariffs would bring inflation, disorder of the supply chain and widespread job losses.
On Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump signed an executive order that was imposed on Tuesday over 25 percent tariffs for Canadian and Mexican goods and 10 percent of energy tariffs. He also imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on goods from China.
Trump said the levy would be “accountable” from Canada and Mexico to stop illegal drug and migration currents to the USA.
The Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced tariffs for US goods for retaliation, while the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to do the same later on Saturday.
The new trade barriers would slow down growth and inflation in all three countries in the next few years. The largest shocks for Mexico and Canada would be estimated by the economists of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
They will also improve decades of deepening integration in North America. Mexico and Canada send more than three quarters of their exports to the USA, signed by a three-way trade agreement, USMCA, signed in Trump’s last presidency.
“The tariffs will drastically increase the costs for everything: these tariffs injured families, communities and companies every day,” said Candace Laing, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
US companies with operations throughout the region will be affected. The US trade chamber said the tariffs would disturb the supply chains.
Trump focused on the US southern border on Mexico for a long time, but he made it clear in the executive order that he sees Canada as part of the problem.
“Criminal networks are involved in human trafficking and smuggling operations that enable unvetted illegal migration across our northern border,” says the Executive Ordinance.
Xavi Delgado from the Canada Institute in the Wilson Center in Washington DC said that the USA never said Canada what measures it had to take on the northern border.
“The President can only implement tariffs by the IEPA (International Emercial Economic Powers Act) in response to an” unusual and extraordinary threat “. Even if the white house believes that its trade deficit with Canada is unfair, this is not an extraordinary threat. A crisis on the northern border, as you describe it, would do it, ”he said.
The leaders in the private sector Mexicos said that according to Trump’s announcement, panic and deep nervousness were given. Many had hoped that the country would benefit from a second Trump office time, and only a few believed that he would hold out his threats.
Pedro Casas Alatriste, director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, said the tariffs were a step back for a relationship built over decades.
“The companies and consumers of the three economies will suffer consequences if this measure is not reversed. (It means a) costs for manufacturers and exporters, jobs, inflation and less shopping for our families, ”he said.
The Mexican economy is already slowing down and is expected to fall into a recession if the tariffs are imposed for a significant period of time. Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada, said the US tariffs would probably also bring Canada to a recession.
“The only winners from the introduction of tariffs against Mexico and Canada by the United States are the main competitors of North America,” said Kenneth Smith, a former trade negotiator with Mexican trade, and added that it had damaged the credibility of the USA as a trading partner.
The Mexicans were shocked by the language that was used in the fact of the white house on the tariffs, which directly accused Sheinbaum’s government of having an “unbearable alliance” with the country’s drug cartels. It was not clear what Mexico could do to remove the tariffs.
Since Trump was elected and started tariffs in November, Canadian and Mexican delegations have tried to convince the president that such measures would also harm the US economy.
Some of the Republicans of Trump also expressed concerns about the President’s tariff announcement, and it was their main trading partner.
John Llewelyn, partner at Independent Economics, an OECD advisory company and former economist, said that the main exual of tariffs would be inflation, with all countries probably violated, including the United States.
“The 80-year era of the stability of the rules and the implementation of economic and financial relationships between the countries ended today,” he said.
