President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. may levy 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada as early as February.
The tariffs would be retaliation, in part, "because they’re allowing a vast number of people" to cross into the U.S. illegally, President Trump told reporters on Monday in the Oval Office.
President Trump did not sign any executive orders relating to such tariffs on Monday. The specific timing and scope of any new tariffs remains unclear.
But the measures have been a frequent promise from the president, who has said for months that they would be an effective political and economic negotiation tool.
The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices for American consumers on everything from gas and automobiles to agricultural products. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
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On Monday President Trump also floated potential tariffs on China, possibly as a way to pressure Chinese company ByteDance to arrange partial U.S. ownership of social platform TikTok.
"If we wanted to make a deal with TikTok and it was a good deal and China wouldn’t approve it, then I think ultimately they’d approve it, because we’d put tariffs on China," the president said.
