U.S. President Donald Trump clarified the start date of 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico will be 4 March, after comments on 26 February suggested they could be delayed until April.
Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that the tariffs originally delayed on 4 February until 4 March will go forward as scheduled. Trump said the tariffs will go into place because “drugs are still pouring into our country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels.”
Trump also added that China will be charged an additional 10 percent tariff on 4 March, for the same reasons.
“A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China,” Trump wrote. “More than 100,000 people died last year due to the distribution of these dangerous and highly addictive POISONS. Millions of people have died over the last two decades.”
Trump said that until illegal drugs stop making it into the U.S., the tariffs will go into effect as scheduled.
Trump previously delayed the 25 percent tariffs on Canada after announcing Canada “agreed to ensure we have a secure Northern Border” as part of a CAD 1.3 billion (USD 917 million, EUR 874 million) border plan that the country had already announced in December 2024.
According to federal statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, just 0.2 percent of U.S. border fentanyl seizures are at the border with Canada...
