(LifeSiteNews) — U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled down on implementing massive 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, with a White House official clarifying that the action could be delayed if certain demands on stopping drug trafficking are met.
Only a couple of days after saying to reporters that the tariffs were on schedule for March 4, an official from the White House said that the implementation date might change “pending ongoing negotiations.”
Trump on Wednesday said something similar, indicating that the tariffs could be delayed as there was “progress” over border security concerns with Mexico and Canada. But on Thursday, Trump took to Truth Social to write that drugs were still coming in from Canada and Mexico and that “until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled.”
In recent weeks, Trump has consistently talked of taking over Canada by economic force at the same time he has threatened to impose massive tariffs on the nation. This notion has been brushed off as not “real” by Canada’s defense minister, however, other politicians have taken the threat seriously.
Canada was initially given a 30-day reprieve from 25 percent tariffs by Trump that were supposed to go in effect at the start of February after Trudeau promised in a call to increase border security and crack down on fentanyl at the border. However, Trump has imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum products.
All of Canada’s mainstream opposition political parties as well as some MPs have advocated for counter-tariffs, including in some cases extreme retaliatory responses such as taxing Tesla 100 percent, as advocated by Liberal MP and leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland.
Not all political parties feel counter tariffs are a good thing.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier said the best response to Trump’s threats of punitive tariffs is to not “retaliate” tit for tat, as other parties have suggested, but rather to get serious about border and immigration control to quell the drug trade.