President Trump has laid out a series of reasons for upending global trade relations, baffling and angering America's largest trading partners.
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Port of Los Angeles. President Trump has imposed a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico and another 10 percent on products from China.
President Trump made one of the biggest gambles of his presidency on Tuesday, imposing massive tariffs without clear justification on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, sparking a trade war that could devastate the U.S. economy.
His actions have undermined diplomatic relations with America's biggest trading partners, wrecked markets and provoked retaliation against American products, leaving businesses, investors and economists wondering why Mr. Trump would stage such a coup without lengthy negotiations or a clear rationale.
Mr. Trump has offered a variety of rationales for the tariffs, saying they are punishment for other countries’ failure to stop the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States, a way to force manufacturing back to America and retaliation against countries that take advantage of the United States. On Tuesday, he cited Canada’s hostility toward American banks as another reason.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he found it hard to understand Mr. Trump’s rationale for the tariffs, but said his intention was to paralyze Canada. “He wants to see the Canadian economy completely collapse because that will make it easier to annex us,” Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference on Tuesday. “That will never happen. We will never be the 51st state.”
Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said Tuesday afternoon that the president might reach some kind of agreement with Canada and Mexico and announce it Wednesday. “I think he’ll figure it out, you’ll do more, and I’ll meet you in the middle somehow,” Mr. Lutnick said.
Canada has announced a series of retaliatory tariffs on $20.5 billion worth of US imports, and Mr Trudeau said other “non-tariff” measures would soon be introduced.
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Source: nytimes.com
