TRUMP IMPOSES 25% TARIFF ON IMPORTS FROM MEXICO AND CANADA, 10% ON IMPORTS FROM CHINA
January 31st, 2025Via: CNBC:
In an apparent ending to weeks of intense speculation, the White House confirmed Friday that President Donald Trump will be leveling aggressive tariffs this weekend on major U.S. trading partners.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump will be implementing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10% duty on China, in retaliation for “the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country.”
The White House provided few details on exactly how the levies will be meted out, saying that they will be available for public inspection at some point Saturday.
Mexico and Canada ought to take the opportunity to become more self-sustaining. They could also trade more with each other, shipping their goods to each other via the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Two heads could be better than the one that sits between them. Just watch out for that one’s anticipation of these moves and ultimate takeover of the two countries when they are in better socioeconomic shape.
As for fentanyl: it wouldn’t be here if we didn’t let it in and allow if not protect its illegal distribution.
A tariff-based win-lose trade war where Trump keeps adding significant supply chain costs, replacing win-win efficiencies of free trade with its specialisations and divisions of labour and economies of scale and frictionless transactions which all reduce supply chain costs, could well be the tipping point of the Slow Crash in the United States. Fuelling domestic inflation, replacing international good will with bad will and retaliatory action, and all that entails. I’m struggling to figure out if Trump and co are just too ignorant or uncaring to realise the harms they are unboxing, or if they are deliberately introducing harm and chaos which they then plan to profit from at the expense of everyone else.