Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that the Trump administration's tariffs were leading to a trade war. Mexico's leader vowed to impose countermeasures on Sunday.
Massive tariffs imposed by President Trump on Tuesday threaten to send economic shockwaves through the United States for consumers and businesses as the country's biggest trading partners hit back, raising fears of a burgeoning trade war.
Canada and China quickly condemned the U.S. tariffs and announced retaliatory tariffs on American exports. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that if the U.S. tariffs were still in place on Sunday, she would have announced countermeasures, too.
“It's time to hit back hard and demonstrate that there will be no winners in a fight with Canada,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tough and at times acerbic address on Tuesday.
The U.S. tariffs were a sharp turn away from the free-trade evangelism that has marked much of America’s postwar foreign policy. The measures amounted to 25 percent duties on all imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on all imports from China. They came on top of a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods imposed a month ago and a host of older tariffs, including those left over from the trade war with China during Mr. Trump’s first term.
Amid the tariff dispute, the pleasantries and flattery that some foreign leaders used in the early weeks of the Trump administration appear to have faded.
Referring to Mr Trump as “Donald”, Mr Trudeau told a news conference in Ottawa: “You're a very smart guy. But this is a very stupid thing to do.”
