US President Donald Trump said he will carry out his threat to impose 25% tariffs on imports on Canada and Mexico on the 1st of February.
He added that a decision about whether this would include oil from those countries had not yet been made.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the move was aimed to address the large amounts of undocumented migrants and the fentanyl that come across US borders as well as trade deficits with its neighbours.
The president also suggested that he was still planning to impose new tariffs on China, which he said earlier this month would be 10%, but did not give any details.
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Canada and Mexico have said that they would respond to US tariffs with measures of their own, while also seeking to assure Washington that they were taking action to address concerns about their US borders.
If US imports of oil from Canada and Mexico are hit with levies it risks undermining Trump’s promise to bring down the cost of living.
Tariffs are an import tax on goods that are produced abroad.In theory, taxing items coming into a country means people are less likely to buy them as they become more expensive.
The intention is that they buy cheaper local products instead – boosting a country’s economy. But the cost of tariffs on imported energy could be passed on to businesses and consumers, which may increase the prices of everything from petrol to groceries.
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