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Trump Begins Tariff War Games with Canada, Mexico, China

Truck crossing the U.S Canada border. Credit: CC/Ken Lund

President Trump’s tariff announcement on Sunday was almost four times larger in the trade goods it covered (ca. $1.35 trillion annually) than the tariffs he levied in his first term (ca. $380 billion), which were maintained and added to (in the case of China) by Joe Biden. But it has already given way to bargaining: The tariff on Mexican goods was paused later Monday, Feb. 3, for one month, after a telephone call in which Mexico’s President Claudia Scheinbaum is reported to have committed to Trump that she will send thousands of Mexican soldiers to the border, to combat smuggling of drugs and people.

Trump also talked twice with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with also the result of a 30-day pause in the tariffs. Trudeau had already announced retaliatory tariffs, primarily on American agricultural exports to Canada; and the Province of Ontario had also announced some retaliatory steps against American companies’ infrastructure contracts.

China’s reaction to the tariffs was more subdued than those of Canada and Mexico. The Foreign Ministry said that China will be suing the United States at the WTO, which will have little impact, and none in the short term. Global Times, for example, in a Feb. 3 article, emphasized the “concern” registered by other countries, particularly in Europe, at the tariffs.

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