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President Joe Biden said he hopes Donald Trump will “reconsider” imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
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Trump has said he could impose a 25% tariff on imports from the two allies after taking office again.
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The president-elect has long held protectionist trade views.
President Joe Biden expressed hope on Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump would back off on his plan to impose tariffs on two of the US’s closest allies.
“I hope he reconsiders it, I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden told reporters on Thanksgiving.
Days before the holiday, Trump pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian imports until the two countries do more to crack down on illegal drugs and immigration. He said the tariffs would be one of his first actions upon taking office, opening the door for a national security law that would allow the president to impose tariffs with few restrictions.
Trump’s vow threatens to upend relations between the US and its two neighbors and could call into question the USMCA, a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement that ranks as one of his biggest achievements in the first term.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris focused on Trump and his tariff threats during the 2024 campaign. Trump has never retreated from more protectionist policies, a break from traditional Republican policies.
The US, Biden said, cannot afford to alienate its two North American neighbors.
“The last thing we need to do is ruin those relationships,” the president said.
It remains to be seen what Trump will do. His first administration imposed several tariffs on imports from U.S. allies, including on Mexican and Canadian steel and aluminum.
In May 2019, Trump threatened to impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, with the potential for further escalation if the country failed to do more to stop illegal immigration. His threat briefly roiled the financial markets, but such tariffs never materialized.
Mexico is mainly concerned with de-escalation.
Trump spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum not long after making the new tariff threat.
Both parties seem happy with the conversation.
“Just had a great conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “She has agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States, effectively closing our southern border.”
Sheinbaum later said in a statement on X that she had not agreed to effectively close the border. She told reporters on Thursday that she was confident a trade war could be avoided.
“There will be no potential tariff war,” Sheinbaum said, according to The Associated Press.
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