Trump announces new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
Originally Published: 01 FEB 25 17:11 ET
Updated: 01 FEB 25 17:45 ET
By Samantha Waldenberg, Kevin Liptak and Alayna Treene, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump announced extraordinary new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China — signing the long-promised economic policy at his Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday. The Trump administration said tariffs are aimed at curbing the flow of drugs and undocumented immigrants into America, but they risk potentially substantial price increases for American consumers across a wide array of common goods.
The new policy represents a reversal of virtually duty-free trade between the three North American nations that’s existed for several years – and an expansion of a frosty trade war between China and the United States that has escalated over the course of the past two administrations.
As Trump has repeatedly promised over the past several months, the tariffs will amount to a 25% duty on all imports from Mexico and most goods from Canada and a 10% tariff on Chinese goods imported into the United States. Although Trump administration officials said Saturday the tariffs were designed to stop the flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants, they gave no specific benchmark for the new import taxes to be lifted – other than the cessation of the drugs and undocumented immigrants coming into the country.
Notably, the tariffs included an important carve-out – the tariff on Canadian energy products will be 10%. Many Americans rely on Canadian energy products, including oil, for gasoline and home heating. The cost of those items could rise when the tariffs are put in place.
Saturday’s tariffs amount to a starting gun on what could escalate into a global trade war, with the potential for higher costs, disrupted supply chains and the loss of jobs. Even Trump acknowledged the potential for adverse consequences on American consumers.
“There could be some temporary, short-term disruption, and people will understand that,” Trump said Friday when pressed by reporters on the cost of tariffs being passed on to importers, and, by extension, consumers. “But the tariffs are going to make us very rich and very strong — and we’re going to treat other countries very fairly.”
Tariffs are one of the few policies Trump has consistently supported for decades, a rare through-line from his days as a New York developer to his time in public office (another is immigration). As a candidate, he swore he’d use tariffs — “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” — to wield US leverage abroad.
Why those countries? Key trading partners
Mexico, China and Canada are the United States’ three largest trade partners.
And in 2023, Mexico overtook China as the top nation exporting goods to the US, marking the first time in two decades China was not the top-ranking exporter. Tariffs the first Trump administration put in place, which the Biden administration largely maintained, have negatively impacted the amount of goods the US imports from China. Mexican and Canadian goods have been imported in the US virtually duty-free as a result of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Mexico maintained that top position last year as well, exporting $467 billion worth of goods to the US, followed by China and Canada, which exported $401 billion and $377 billion worth of goods, respectively.
That’s according to Commerce Department figures from last year through November, the most recent month of available data. Collectively, the three countries accounted for 42% of the nearly $3 trillion worth of goods the US imported worldwide last year.
Canada was the top country the US exported goods to last year, valued at $322 billion, followed by Mexico and China, which received $309 billion and $131 billion worth of goods from the US, respectively. US exports to the three countries accounted for over 40% of the $1.9 trillion worth of goods the US exported globally last year.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
