The president-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has shown his global influence. With just a simple post on X, the president-elect has left the world in a dilemma. Yesterday, Trump announced that he would impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on goods from China. And the reaction from markets and world leaders proves that while Trump hasn’t yet assumed office, the Trump Era 2.0 has already begun.
Yesterday, Trump announced these tariffs, citing illegal migration and drug trafficking as major reasons. He specifically pointed out that the drug Fentanyl is ruining the lives of young Americans and the future of the country, hence the tariffs. While most experts and leaders believe that tariffs are nothing more than negotiating tactics, they send a strong signal to the world.
After Trump made his remarks, leaders of Canada and Mexico aslo shared their views on the matter. The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said that they can respond with tariffs and levies of its own. At her daily press conference, she said, “One tariff will be followed by another in response, and so on until we put common companies at risk.”
For Canada, the Trump post just landed as the Canadian officials were amidst a cabinet group meeting. When they heard about the news, PM Trudeau called Trump and had a dialogue with him. He also pointed out that “the issues at the Canadian are non-existent as compared to the issues with the mexican border.
Still, Canada’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, pointed out that Canada is not ruling out striking back as they did when Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in his first term.
Chrystia said, “The important thing is we got through it, and our response was successful. The reason we were able to do that is we were smart, we were united, we were strong.”
