WASHINGTON: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched a stunning attack on Donald Trump’s “dumb” trade war as huge US tariffs kicked in against Canada, Mexico and China on Tuesday, sparking angry and immediate retaliation from all three.
A furious Trudeau accused Trump of trying to cause the collapse of Canada’s economy to make it easier for the United States to annex his country, and blasted Washington for targeting a close ally while “appeasing” Russia over Ukraine.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would lay out her country’s response on Sunday.
Global markets fell sharply in response to the escalating trade war, with the S&P 500 — a major Wall Street index — extending recent losses to erase all of its gains since Trump’s US election victory in November.
Beijing files complaint at WTO against US duties
Trump had announced — and then paused — blanket 25 per cent tariffs on imports from major trading partners Canada and Mexico in February, accusing them of failing to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
He pushed ahead with them Tuesday, citing a lack of progress on both fronts. And after Canada retaliated, Trump quickly threatened to hit Canada again.
The sweeping duties will hit over $918 billion in US imports from both countries, affecting everything from avocados to the lumber crucial for building US homes, and hampering supply chains for key sectors like automobiles.
Trump also inked an order on Monday to increase a previously imposed 10pc tariff on China to 20pc — piling atop existing levies on various Chinese goods.
Beijing condemned the “unilateral imposition of tariffs by the US,” filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation and threatening to impose 10 and 15pc levies on a range of agricultural imports from the United States.
Pushing up prices
Analysts and businesses have warned that the higher import costs could push up prices for consumers — which could complicate efforts to bring down inflation, one of the issues that got Trump elected.
That includes at grocery stores — Mexico supplied 63 percent of US vegetable imports and nearly half of US fruit and nut imports in 2023, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Brian Cornell, the chief executive of the US retail giant Target, said Tuesday that the company could be forced to raise the cost of some fruits and vegetables over the next couple of days.
“If there’s a 25pc tariff, those prices will go up,” he told CNBC.
“The giant wildcard here, obviously, is how the consumers are going to react to the price increases,” Matthew Bilunas, the chief financial officer at US electronics retailer Best Buy, told investors during a conference call on Tuesday.
Housing costs could also be hit. More than 70pc of imports of two key materials homebuilders need — softwood lumber and gypsum — come from Canada and Mexico, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Truck drivers at the Otay Mesa border crossing in Mexico told AFP they were already feeling the impact as they waited to cross into the United States early Tuesday.
Fight to ‘the bitter end’
Ottawa’s retaliatory 25pc tariffs on $30bn of goods went into effect early Tuesday, and Trudeau said that they would expand to “the remaining $125bn of American products in 21 days time.” “Canadians are reasonable. We are polite. We will not back down from a fight,” he said.
Addressing the US president directly, Trudeau said that while he thinks Trump is a “smart guy,” the tariffs are a “very dumb thing to do.” Trump hit back on Truth Social by repeating a mocking reference to Trudeau as a US underling.
“Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the US, our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!,” Trump wrote. China said its tariffs against the United States will come into effect next week and will impact tens of billions of dollars in imports, from soybeans to chickens.
Beijing also announced that imports of US lumber have been suspended, and that soybean shipments from three American exporters have been halted, as country’s foreign ministry vowed to fight the US trade war to the “bitter end.”
Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2025
