Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada and an additional 10 percent levy on China, to begin Feb. 4.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that her administration will implement retaliatory tariffs against the United States Saturday night after President Donald Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexican imports into the United States earlier in the evening. He also imposed a 25 percent levy on Canada and 10 percent on China.
The U.S. tariffs are scheduled to start on Feb. 4.
Mexico did not release any details on its tariff policy, but Sheinbaum said in a statement posted to social media platform X that she has directed her Secretary of Economy to implement “tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests.”
Meanwhile, China’s commerce ministry said on Sunday it will file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and take countermeasures to “safeguard its rights and interests.”
Trump put China on notice about his expectations for cooperation with a trade deal in his first term, and recently expressed disappointment that the Biden administration did not follow up on Beijing’s promise to “issue the death penalty to people that make fentanyl.”
“That would have stopped it,” Trump said on his third day back in office. “But we’ll have to stop it with tariffs.”
Trump said he used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the tariffs,“because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our citizens, including fentanyl.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the United States needs to “solve its own fentanyl issue.”
Sheinbaum called the White House’s accusations that her government was working in alliance with drug trafficking cartels “slander.”
She said Mexico’s tariffs were her “Plan B,” and proposed to Trump to “establish a working group with our best public health and security teams.”
“Problems are not resolved by imposing tariffs, but by talking and dialoguing, as we did in recent weeks with your State Department to address the phenomenon of migration; in our case, with respect for human rights,” she said.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump said he was following through on a campaign promise.
By Melanie Sun
