<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/us/politics/trump-tariffs-trade-mexico-canada-china.html" class="">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/us/politics/trump-tariffs-trade-mexico-canada-china.html</a><div class=""><h1 class="e1h9rw200 css-1fyu99" data-testid="headline">Trump Starts Countdown Toward Tariffs on America’s Largest Trading Partners</h1><p class="css-cb4rkw"><i class="">The
president said he will impose tariffs Feb. 1 on products from Canada,
Mexico and China, which together account for more than a third of U.S.
trade</i></p><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class=""><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">When President
Trump refrained from immediately imposing new tariffs on his first day
in office, as he had previously threatened, business executives and
others who support international trade breathed a sigh of relief.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">That relief has been short-lived. On Monday night, just hours after his inauguration speech, Mr. Trump <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-tariffs-executive-order.html" title="">said</a>
he planned to put a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and
Mexico by Feb. 1, claiming the countries were allowing “mass numbers of
people and fentanyl” to come to the United States.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">On Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump expanded the threat and <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/business/trump-tariffs-china.html" title="">said</a>
he also intends to put an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese
products by the same date, saying China was sending fentanyl to Mexico
and Canada.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The statements leave just
10 days before significant levies would go into effect on the United
States’ three largest trading partners, a move that could throw both
American diplomatic relationships and global supply chains into
disarray. Mexico, China and Canada together account for more than a
third of the goods and services that are imported and exported by the
United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.</p></div></div><div class=""><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The three
countries together purchased more than $1 trillion of U.S. exports and
provided nearly $1.5 trillion of goods and services to the United States
in 2023.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The economies of Mexico and
Canada in particular are closely integrated with that of the United
States. Supply chains for various goods snake back and forth across
North American borders, traveling between fields, factories and stores
in each country as they are transformed from raw materials into finished
products.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A single car and its parts may cross the U.S.-Canada border <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/world/canada/trumps-tariffs-us-canada-mexico.html" title="">eight times as it is assembled</a>. A <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/business/economy/nafta-beer-bacon-jeans.html" title="">pair of</a>
bluejeans could be made with cotton, fabric and buttons from the United
States, but sewn in a factory in Mexico. Farmers in the United States
send corn and soybeans south of the border to be incorporated into
packaged food and animal feed; Mexican farms send American groceries
stores cheap avocados, mangos and tomatoes, even in the dead of winter.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">If
a 25 percent tariff is added each time that one of those products
crosses the U.S. border, trade experts said, it could significantly
raise the cost of goods Americans buy and even force U.S. manufacturers
to shutter operations.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It’s not clear
whether Mr. Trump will actually follow through on those threats, nor
which products the tariffs would apply to if imposed. One person
familiar with the Trump administration’s deliberations said they had
been considering tariffs on all imports from those countries, as well as
looking at tariffs on specific goods, like cars, steel and aluminum.</p><div class=""><section name="articleBody" class="meteredContent css-1r7ky0e"><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-2"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Stock markets have mostly shrugged off Mr. Trump’s tariff statements and closed yesterday near record highs.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
Canadian and Mexican governments in particular have rushed to try to
avoid any tariffs. They have tried to reassure the Trump team that they
are taking extra effort to stop people and drugs from crossing American
borders, and have drawn up lists of American products on which they
could impose their own tariffs in response.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
Chinese government has also been weighing its options for potential
retaliation, should Mr. Trump impose tariffs. At a news briefing in
Beijing on Wednesday, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign
Ministry, said that China would “safeguard” its interests. “We always
believe there is no winner in a tariff or trade war,” she added.</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"></aside></div></section><div class="bottom-of-article"><div class="css-1i6tsou"><div class="eqi4ubu0 css-h77nca"><div class="css-kzd6pg"><p class=""><span class="css-97bxx6"><a class="overrideLinkStyles authorPageLinkClass" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/ana-swanson">Ana Swanson</a></span>
covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in
Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.<span class="css-kzd6pg"> <a class="overrideLinkStyles authorPageLinkClass" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/ana-swanson">More about Ana Swanson</a></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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