‘Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate,’ Howard Lutnick said.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on March 2 that tariffs on Mexico and Canada will resume as planned on Tuesday, but that the president will establish their exact levels.
President Donald Trump had previously promised to impose 25 percent tariffs on both countries on March 4 after previously pausing them during negotiations over security of their borders with the United States. While speaking with FOX News on Sunday, Lutnick said Canada and Mexico have “done a reasonable job” securing both borders and that Trump is deciding what the final tariff levels should be.
“He’s sort of thinking about right now how exactly he wants to play with Mexico and Canada, and that is a fluid situation. There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate,” he said.
The president is also expected to raise tariffs on China from 10 percent to 20 percent on Tuesday, unless the country ends its supplying countries like Mexico with fentanyl precursors that get turned into the deadly drug and trafficked into America, Lutnick added.
“We cannot allow this scourge [of illicit drugs] to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed tariffs scheduled to go into effect on March Forth will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump wrote, partially in capital letters. “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date.”
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Canada and Mexico had previously secured a 30-day pause in the tariffs after the two countries’ leaders agreed to bolster their border policies and help lower the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
Lutnick addressed the monthlong pause during the president’s first Cabinet meeting of his second term on Feb. 26.
“The fentanyl-related things, if they’re working hard on the border, at the end of that 30 days, they have to prove to the president that they’ve satisfied him in that regard,” he said.
Trump suggested that it would be difficult for Mexico and Canada to satisfy his conditions for removing the tariffs after the pause ends on Tuesday.
Canada supplies 60 percent of America’s oil imports—4 million barrels per day—making it the largest crude oil supplier to the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The president has also said that increasing domestic energy production will be one of his administration’s main strategies to tame inflation.
Andrew Moran and John Haughey contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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