President Trump’s imposition of blanket 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico drew swift vows of retaliation from the United States’ immediate neighbors on Tuesday. China, which was hit with a second 10% tariff on U.S. exports since Mr. Trump took office, bringing the total levy to 20%, immediately announced its own reciprocal measures — deliberately targeting America’s agricultural sector.
Below is a look at the measures being imposed or planned by Canada, China and Mexico, and the rhetoric coming from officials in those countries as Mr. Trump ramps up his trade war against one of America’s biggest adversaries, and its two closest neighbors.
Canada announces reciprocal tariffs; Trudeau calls Trump’s move “a very dumb thing to do”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced immediate retaliation to the new U.S. tariffs in a statement late Monday evening. He said Canada would impose a $30 billion counter-tariff on goods imported from the U.S. immediately, escalating to $155 billion worth of American products within the next 21 days. Trudeau has said previously that Canada would target American beer, wine, bourbon and home appliances, along with Florida orange juice, with its measures.
“Canada will not let this unjustified decision go unanswered,” Trudeau said, adding that he was already discussing with Canada’s provincial leaders various non-tariff measures that could be imposed if the Trump administration doesn’t lift its tariffs.
“Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs. Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term,” Trudeau said.
In a news conference Tuesday, Trudeau lashed out at President Trump’s decision.
“We should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world,” he said. “Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.”
“Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closet partner and ally, their closet friend. At the same, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying murderous dictator. Make that make sense,” said Trudeau. “We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.”
Trudeau also said Canada will challenge the U.S. action by filling dispute resolution claims at the World Trade Organization and through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal that replaced NAFTA.
Some of Canada’s governors have pushed for a tougher response.
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything, including cut off their energy with a smile on my face. And I’m encouraging every other province to do the same; Quebec, Manitoba, BC [British Columbia], we all have to act in unison,” Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said at an industrial convention on Monday. “They rely on our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard. We’re going to come back twice as hard.”
Ford said retaliatory measures that Canada could consider going forward included halting shipments of critical minerals such as uranium, potash and nickel, in addition to cutting the energy supply, which he said could leave 1.5 million people without power in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, potentially causing significant disruptions to the U.S. economy.
He said he had also asked officials in his province to end billions of dollars in contracts with the U.S. and to stop the import of American alcohol to Ontario.
“It’s going to be an absolute disaster for both countries,” he acknowledged in a separate interview with NBC News. “I don’t want to respond, but I will respond like they have never seen before.”
Mr. Trump has framed his tariffs on Canada as a response to what he says is the country’s failure to stem the flow of both undocumented immigrants and fentanyl across the northern U.S. border — though very little of the drug enters that way, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
In a message posted to his own Truth social platform early Tuesday, Mr. Trump also took issue with Canadian banking regulations, saying the country “doesn’t allow American Banks to do business in Canada, but their banks flood the American Market,” but providing no further context.
“I heard he talked about banking again this morning,” Trudeau said during his Tuesday news conference, “which doesn’t make any sense, because American banks — of 16 American banks currently active in Canada — holding about $113 billion worth of assets in this country. So the American banks are alive and well and prospering in Canada. It’s an example of not really being able to see what it is that he [Trump] wants, because even the excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false. So we actually have to fall back on the one thing he has said repeatedly, that what he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that will make it easier to annex us.”
Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that Canada should become a U.S. “51st state.”
Trudeau defended Canada’s actions on border control and the illegal flow of fentanyl on Monday, saying that between December 2024 and January 2025, seizures of the drug from Canada by U.S. authorities dropped 97%, to just 0.03 pounds. That drop came, he said, after Canada implemented a $1.3 billion plan to deploy more helicopters and more boots on the ground, and to appoint a “Fentanyl Czar.”
China announces tariffs, warns against “maximum pressure” tactic
Mr. Trump has long accused China of giving its manufacturers and other businesses an unfair advantage in trade with the U.S. and vowed to balance the extremely lopsided flow of goods. But he has framed his latest round of tariffs on the country as punishment for what he claims is a Chinese refusal to crack down on the flow of fentanyl and the chemicals used to make it to the U.S.
China’s government has refused to back down in the face of the escalating trade war with the Trump administration, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian telling reporters in Beijing on Tuesday that the “Chinese people cannot be swayed by fallacies, deterred by intimidation, and bullying tactics are not the right way to deal with China.”
“Attempting to exert maximum pressure on China is targeting the wrong opponent and is a misreading of the situation. If the U.S. truly wants to resolve the fentanyl issue, it should engage in consultation with China built on the principles of equality, respect, and mutual benefit to address each other’s concerns,” he said, according to China’s official media.
“If the U.S. has other intentions and is committed to waging a tariff war, trade war, or any other kind of war, China will respond in kind,” Lin said, adding a call for the White House “to abandon its bullying tactics and return to the necessary track of dialogue and cooperation at an early date.”
China retaliated immediately, announcing its own 10-15% tariff on U.S. agricultural products and foods, from wheat, corn and cotton to soybeans, beef, chicken and dairy. Beijing also placed 25 U.S. firms under export and investment restrictions, citing what it said were national security concerns.
Veteran Chinese analyst Victor Gao told CBS News that while China’s counter-tariffs will impact U.S. farmers — perceived by Beijing to be among Mr. Trump’s support base — he believes Beijing is being measured in its response and that it doesn’t want to inflame the situation.
Gao, who has worked with the country’s leadership and is now vice president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing, said China is better prepared for a trade war with the U.S. than it was during Mr. Trump’s first term, as it has diversified into other, non-U.S. markets.
He said if President Xi Jinping really wanted to step up Beijing’s retaliation, it could halt imports of U.S. gas and oil, but he warned against the implications for both nations if the trade war continues to escalate, saying at best, it would end in a “bloody tie.”
But Gao said he believed talks were still going on behind the scenes between U.S and Chinese officials, and that both countries likely have little interest in a deteriorating, tit-for-tat tariffs battle.
Mexican president vows retaliation to “inconceivable” tariffs
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that her country would respond to the 25% tariffs imposed by the Trump administration with its own retaliatory tariffs and non-tariff measures, but held off announcing exactly what those would be, promising a statement on Sunday in Mexico City’s main square. She said she was scheduled to have a call with Mr. Trump this week, probably on Thursday.
She said the reciprocal measures Mexico would take were, “not in any way or with the purpose of starting an economic or commercial confrontation that unfortunately and regrettably is the opposite of what we must be doing.”
“It’s inconceivable that they don’t think about the damage this is going to cause to United States citizens and businesses with the increase in prices for things produced in our country,” Sheinbaum said. “Also, the damage it will cause by stopping job creation in both countries. No one wins with this decision.”
Sheinbaum stressed how Mexico had been working alongside the U.S. to respond to requests by Mr. Trump to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and to reinforce the U.S.-Mexico border to curb migration.
“We collaborate to avoid illegal drug trafficking to the United States, but as we have said on multiple occasions, that country’s government must take responsibility, too, for the crisis of opioid consumption that has caused so many deaths in the United States,” the Mexican leader said.
“There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” added Sheinbaum.
The Mexican peso slumped against the U.S. dollar as Sheinbaum delivered her remarks on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
