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Trumps Threatens Tariffs Feb. 1 on Canada, Mexico and China

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When President Trump did not follow through with his promise to immediately impose new tariffs on his first day in office, business executives and others who support international trade breathed a sigh of relief.That relief was short-lived. On Monday night, just hours after his inauguration speech, Mr. Trump said he planned to put a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico beginning on Feb. 1, claiming that the countries were allowing “mass numbers of people and fentanyl” to come to the United States.On Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump said he would also put an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese products by the same date, accusing China of sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada, which was then crossing into the United States.Mr. Trump’s threats leave just 10 days before significant levies could go into effect on the United States’ three largest trading partners, a move that could throw American diplomatic relationships and global supply chains into disarray.Mexico, China and Canada account for more than a third of the goods and services that are imported to or bought from the United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs. Together, the countries purchased more than $1 trillion of U.S. exports and provided nearly $1.5 trillion of goods and services to the United States in 2023, the last year government data is available.While tariffs have long been used by the United States as punishment for unfair trading practices, Mr. Trump’s first use of them is aimed at an entirely different outcome: tightening American borders against immigrants and illegal drugs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    in Economy

    Trump Is Said to Push for Early Reopening of North American Trade Deal

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    The president wants to begin renegotiating a U.S. trade deal with Canada and Mexico earlier than a scheduled 2026 review, people familiar with his thinking said.The Trump administration intends to push to renegotiate the U.S. trade deal with Canada and Mexico ahead of a required 2026 review of it, seeking to shore up U.S. auto jobs and counter Chinese firms that are making inroads into the Mexican auto sector, people familiar with the deliberations said.The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Mr. Trump signed in 2020, required the three countries to hold a “joint review” of the deal after six years, on July 1, 2026. But Mr. Trump intends to begin those negotiations sooner, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been made public.Trump officials particularly want to tighten the pact’s rules governing the auto sector, to try to discourage auto factories from leaving the United States, they said. They are also seeking to block Chinese companies making cars and auto parts from being able to export to the United States through factories in Mexico.Mr. Trump has also threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico, saying those countries are allowing drugs and migrants to flow across American borders. Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday night after his inauguration, he said he planned to move forward with the tariffs on Feb. 1.Members of the Trump team believe that Mexico has been violating the terms of a separate agreement to limit metal exports to the United States, and they are eager to show the Mexican government that they mean to take action against such trade violations, one person familiar with the conversations said.The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Mr. Trump was pushing for an early renegotiation of his North American trade deal. The three countries are required to meet to discuss the terms of the trade deal six years after the agreement went into force, but trade experts have expected the Trump team to speed up work on the issue.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 138 Shares56 Views

    in Economy

    Trump Pitches External Revenue Service to Collect Tariffs: What to Know

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    President Trump has promised to generate a “massive” amount of revenue with tariffs on foreign products, an amount so big that the president said he would create a new agency — the External Revenue Service — to handle collecting the money.“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Mr. Trump said on Monday in his inaugural address, where he reiterated a promise to create the agency. “It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our Treasury coming from foreign sources.”Much about the new agency remains unclear, including how it would differ from the government’s current operations. Trade experts said that, despite the name “external,” the bulk of tariff revenue would continue to be collected from U.S. businesses that import products.Here’s what you need to know about what Mr. Trump has proposed.The U.S. has an established system for collecting tariffs.Tariff revenue is currently collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which monitors the goods and the people that come into the United States through hundreds of airports and land crossings.This has been the case nearly since the country’s inception. Congress established the Customs Service in 1789 as part of the Treasury Department, and for roughly a century tariffs were the primary source of government revenue, counted in stately customs houses that still stand in most major cities throughout the United States, said John Foote, a customs lawyer at Kelley, Drye and Warren.With the creation of the income tax in 1913, tariffs became a minor source of government revenue, and after the Sept. 11 attacks, the customs bureau was moved from the Treasury Department to the Department of Homeland Security.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 163 Shares71 Views

    in Economy

    Trump Holds Off on Tariffs, but Paves the Way for Future Trade Action

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    President Trump will stop short of immediately imposing tariffs on imported products on Monday, but will issue an executive order directing federal agencies to begin studying a broad list of trade issues that could ultimately result in taxes on goods from China, Canada, Mexico and other countries in the coming months.The decision suggests that Mr. Trump is taking a more measured approach to fulfilling a key campaign promise of using tariffs to reorder America’s trading relationships. It will also delay — at least for now — fights that have been brewing with foreign governments, which have promised to answer Mr. Trump’s levies with tariffs of their own.The topics Mr. Trump will direct his officials to investigate in an executive order Monday will be extensive, including trade deficits and trade deals signed with China, Canada and Mexico. That could tee up the ability of the president to deploy tariffs on numerous targets for many different reasons, potentially scrambling international supply chains and spawning global trade wars in the weeks and months to come.The executive order will direct federal agencies to examine unfair trade and currency practices and to assess whether foreign governments have complied with terms of the two trade deals Mr. Trump signed in his first presidency. It will also require the government to assess the feasibility of creating an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs and dutiesMr. Trump is also ordering a study of tariffs that the United States has imposed for national security reasons, as well as the use of a special trade exemption, called de minimis, that allows low-value goods to come into the United States tariff free. That loophole has allowed large volumes of Chinese goods to escape the tariffs Mr. Trump slapped on China during his first term. The details of the executive order were earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.While Mr. Trump has decided to hold off on tariffs for now, his advisers say he remains more convinced than ever that they can be used to great advantage.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares71 Views

    in Economy

    ‘So Much Uncertainty’: Businesses Worry About Trump’s Many Tariff Plans

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    The incoming president has floated numerous tariff plans. Retailers say their livelihood could depend on which ultimately come to fruition.For Klem’s, a general store in rural Massachusetts, each year has seemed more challenging than the last.First, there was the pandemic, then a global supply chain breakdown that left the store short of lawn mowers and shoes. Next, a spate of inflation raided American pocketbooks. All along, Amazon continued to pull customers away from brick and mortar stores like Klem’s.Now Jessica Bettencourt, Klem’s owner, says she is facing a new challenge that has left her wondering if the store — which was started by her grandparents in 1949 — will survive. The sweeping tariffs that President-elect Donald J. Trump has promised to impose could raise the price of foreign-made products and cut into her business’s already slim profits, she says.“A huge tariff increase would potentially decimate us,” she said. “A retail store like mine has slim margins to begin with.” It wouldn’t take a whole lot before “all of a sudden, those slim little pennies that you might make are gone,” she said.Mr. Trump comes into office having floated a wide variety of tariff plans. He has proposed a universal tariff on nearly all imports, plus levies ranging from 10 to 200 percent on products from China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union and elsewhere.Mr. Trump has promised to use tariffs for multiple goals: cajoling companies to make their products in the United States, funding tax cuts, persuading other countries to stem the flows of drugs and migrants and even forcing Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares74 Views

    in Economy

    Biden Administration Adds 37 Chinese Companies to Forced Labor List

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    The administration announced it would penalize its largest-ever batch of companies linked to Xinjiang, including major suppliers of critical minerals and textiles.The Biden administration said on Tuesday that it would block imports from more than three dozen Chinese companies, citing their alleged ties to forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China.The administration’s move is the single largest batch of additions to a list of companies that are barred from bringing products into the United States because of concerns about human rights violations.The action was taken under a 2021 law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which prevents the United States from importing products that are made in whole or in part in Xinjiang, a far-western region of China where the government has detained and surveilled large numbers of minorities, including Uyghurs.China denies the presence of forced labor in Xinjiang, but the U.S. government has said the Chinese government uses forced labor, mass detentions and other coercive practices to subdue the region’s predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, particularly the Uyghurs.The 37 entities that were added on Tuesday to a special list created by the law include subsidiaries of a major supplier of critical minerals, Zijin Mining. The New York Times reported in 2022 that Zijin Mining had links with labor transfer programs in Xinjiang.The additions also include one of the world’s largest textile manufacturers, Huafu Fashion, and 25 of its subsidiaries. It’s not clear which retailers Huafu currently supplies, but H&M previously said that it had an indirect relationship with a mill belonging to Huafu Fashion and that it would cut those ties.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares123 Views

    in Economy

    Trump’s Falsehoods Aside, China’s Influence Over Global Ports Raises Concerns

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    The president-elect inaccurately said that Chinese soldiers operate the Panama Canal. But China’s strategic positions in shipping worry Washington officials.It was a Christmas message that no one saw coming.On Dec. 25, President-elect Donald J. Trump went on his social media platform, Truth Social, to wish a “Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal.”Mr. Trump’s claim is false. The Panama Canal is operated by an agency of the Panamanian government, not by Chinese soldiers. In a news conference, President José Raúl Mulino of Panama disputed Mr. Trump’s statements, saying that there were “no Chinese in the canal” beyond those in transiting ships or at the visitor center.“There is absolutely no Chinese interference or participation in anything that has to do with the Panama Canal,” Mr. Mulino said.While Mr. Trump’s claim was inaccurate, the growing influence of Chinese companies and the Chinese government over shipping and global ports, including the Panama Canal, has become a concern for U.S. officials.The Chinese government has invested heavily in building ports throughout the world. And given that China is the world’s biggest exporter, private Chinese companies now play a major role in shipping and port operations, giving them significant influence over the movement of global goods and strategic positions from which to monitor other countries’ activities.Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump-Vance transition team, said in a statement that “Chinese control of the Panama Canal absolutely poses a national security threat to the U.S.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares190 Views

    in Economy

    U.S. Weighs Ban on Chinese Drones, Citing National Security Concerns

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    The Commerce Department requested that private companies comment on the implications of the rule by March. The final decision will fall to the Trump administration.The Biden administration said on Thursday that it was considering a new rule that could restrict or ban Chinese drones in the United States out of national security concerns.In a notice, the Commerce Department said the involvement of foreign adversaries — notably China and Russia — in the design, development, manufacture and supply of drones could pose “undue or unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”The notice requested private companies to comment on the scope and implications of the rule by March 4. The decision of what restrictions to impose, if any, on Chinese and Russian drones will fall to the Trump administration.China and Russia have shown a willingness to compromise U.S. infrastructure and security through cyberespionage, the Commerce Department said, adding that the governments could leverage their laws and political situations to “co-opt private entities for national interests.”Beyond the use of drones by hobbyists, the devices are employed in a variety of U.S. industries. They help farmers monitor crops and spray for pests, inspect pipelines for the chemical industry, survey bridges and construction sites, and aid firefighters and other emergency responders.But drones have evolved over the past decade to include sophisticated cameras, receivers and artificial intelligence abilities, fueling concerns that they could be turned into a useful tool for an adversarial government.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 138 Shares166 Views

    in Economy

    Chinese Companies Have Sidestepped Trump’s Tariffs. They Could Do It Again.

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    The companies have found plenty of new channels to the U.S. market — demonstrating the potential limits of the tariffs Donald Trump has promised to impose.After President Donald J. Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese bicycles in 2018, Arnold Kamler, then the chief executive of the bike maker Kent International, saw a curious trend play out in the bicycle industry.Chinese bicycle factories moved their final manufacturing and assembly operations out of China, setting up new facilities in Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and India. Using parts mostly from China, those companies made bicycles that they could export directly to the United States — without paying the 25 percent tariff had the bike been shipped straight from China.“The net effect of what’s going on with these tariffs is that Chinese factories in China are setting up Chinese factories in other countries,” said Mr. Kamler, whose company imports some bicycles from China and makes others at a South Carolina factory.Pushing those factories into other countries resulted in additional costs for companies and consumers, without increasing the amount of manufacturing in the United States, Mr. Kamler said. He said he had been forced to raise his prices several times as a result of the tariffs.“There’s no real gain here,” said Mr. Kamler, whose bikes are sold at Walmart and other retailers. “It’s very inflationary.”Arnold Kamler said he had to raise prices at Kent International several times as a result of President Donald J. Trump’s 2018 tariffs.Kate Thornton for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More