Canada and Mexico hit back with new tariffs after Donald Trump's executive orders escalate trade war
Canada and Mexico have responded after President Donald Trump imposed huge tariffs, with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau warning his actions will have 'real consequences for the American people'.
President Trump has been back in The White House for nearly two weeks, and he's made a ton of amendments to the way the US is run in that short space of time.
Heck, Trump broke records for the number of executive orders signed on his first day as president, with changes to passports and immigration among some of his first moves.
The Trump administration has also imposed higher tariff imports on countries like China, Canada and Mexico, with import tariffs at 25 percent for Mexico and Canada, while there's ten percent tariffs on goods from China.
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As you can imagine, the new changes haven't gone down well with Canadian, Mexican and Chinese officials.
Speaking shorty before the hiked tariffs were detailed on Saturday (February 1), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "We’re ready with a response, a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response."
And during a press briefing on Friday (January 31st), Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said: "We have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, depending on what the government of the United States decides.
"It is very important for the people of Mexico to know that we will always defend the dignity of our people, that we will always defend respect for our sovereignty, and engage in dialogue as equals, as we have always stated, without subordination."
Both the Canadian and Mexican president announced counter-tariffs on Saturday evening as a direct response to Trump's executive order.
Canada is imposing 25 percent tariffs on CA $155 billion of US goods.
Trudeau said: "It will have real consequences for you, the American people."
Speaking in an address on Saturday, the Canadian prime minister added: "The actions taken by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together."
Meanwhile, Sheinbaum revealed in a post on Twitter that she's ordered her economic minister to implement measures to protect Mexico's best interests.
"We categorically reject the White House's slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organisations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory," Mexico's president wrote.
"If the United States government and its agencies wanted to address the serious fentanyl consumption in their country, they could fight the sale of drugs on the streets of their major cities, which they don't do, and the laundering of money that this illegal activity generates that has done so much harm to its population."
Topics: Donald Trump, Canada, Mexico, Politics, US News
Callum Jones