U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will take effect on Tuesday, along with an extra 10% duty on Chinese imports because deadly drugs are still pouring into the U.S. from those countries.
The fresh China tariffs, in addition to the 10% tariff levied on February 4, coincide with the start of China’s annual parliamentary meetings on Wednesday, a setpiece political event where Beijing is expected to unveil its main economic priorities for 2025.
The announcement also leaves Beijing less than a week to publish countermeasures, as the Trump administration shows signs of a hardening stance towards its strategic rival despite backing down on the threat of 60% tariffs when Trump took office.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he decided to add the extra tariffs on China and stick to the Tuesday deadline for Canada and Mexico given what his administration sees as insufficient progress on curbing fentanyl flows into the country.
“There are ongoing discussions with the Chinese, Mexico and Canada,” a White House official told Reuters. “We’ve gotten a good handle on the migration issue, but there are still concerns on the other issue of fentanyl deaths.”
Mexico on Thursday extradited nearly 30 convicts to the U.S., including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted in 1985 of murdering a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
According to the Centres for Disease Control, 72,776 people died from synthetic opioids in 2023 in the U.S., chiefly from fentanyl.
Customs and Border Patrol agents seized 991 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border in January 2025, down 50.5% from a year earlier, but still enough to kill many millions of Americans, the White House official said.
(Reuters)
