TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald signaled on Thursday his administration would not make any concession to the proposed extra tariffs on Canada, and would not push back on his plan to levy reciprocal tariffs on major trading partners including Canada.
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Credit：Xinhua News Agency
In a meeting with the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump said he won’t withdraw the tariffs he has ordered on Canada. when asked about his tariff plans, Trump said: “No, I’m not going to bend at all — aluminum or steel or cars. We’re not going to bend. We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years. We’ve been subjected to costs that we shouldn’t be subjected to.”
Trump repeated his suggestion of merging Canada and U.S., namely, making Canada the 51th state of the United States. He observed the border betwen the two nations now is an artificial line. "Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago, and makes no sense," he said.
Trump on Tuesday threatened he would double the planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and reiterated his annexation talk. “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump wrote on social media. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem.”
The 25% U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum took into effect on Wednesday and Canada the same day immediately announced countermeasures. Canada will impose 25% tariffs on U.S. imports worth of more than $20 billion in response to U.S. levies on steel and aluminum products, and they will go into effect on Thursday. The new retaliatory tariffs cover teel and aluminum, as well as other U.S. goods including computers, sports equipment and cast iron products, said Canadian Finance Miinster Dominic LeBlanc.
Trump on Thursday stressed he would not change his mind on reciprocal tariffs on Canada and other countries that have imposed trade barriers to U.S. He acknowledged his tariff agenda would disrupt the U.S. economy but played down the affect. “There will be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long,” the president said.
Trump signed on February 13 a presidential memorandum dubbed "Fair and Reciprocal Plan", and that day ordered the development of a comprehensive plan for restoring fairness in U.S. trade relationships and countering non-reciprocal trading arrangements.
The federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Commerce will launch comprehensive examination on non-reciprocal trade relationships with all U.S. trading partners, such as tariffs imposed on United States products, unfair, discriminatory, or extraterritorial taxes imposed on United States businesses, workers, and consumers, including a value-added tax (VAT). U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expected the studies will be complete by April 1, and Trump can decide when to enact any new recommended tariffs from April 2.
Trump said late February that he will move forward with the reciprocal tariff on American trading partners as the schedule. “The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect,” the president said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said last Friday the reciprocal tariffs plan will make tariff rates in U.S. match those higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers on the country imposed by other countries. The tariff adjustment would be made at the industry level as well as country-specific investigations.
"The concept here is one number-one number that reflects, in the aggregate, the unfairness embedded in the higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers that countries impose on us," Navarro said.
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