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.
Trump also paused the tariffs on Mexico following a conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who according to Trump agreed to station 10,000 Mexican soldiers on the country’s northern border.
“These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal migrants into our country,” Trump wrote.
Statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated 112,582 total drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2022, and its more recent numbers indicate 89,740 overdose related deaths in the 12 months since September 2023. Statistics indicate overdoses from synthetic opioids declined 27 percent between September 2022 and August 2024 after years of increased deaths.
During Trump’s first term as president, fatal overdoses from illegal drugs rose 44.5 percent, according to CDC statistics.
The latest announcement adding another 10 percent onto China will mean certain goods from the country will be subject to a 45 percent tariff after being added on to 25 percent tariffs stemming from Trump’s previous trade war with China. The tariffs also continue to defy economist predictions that any trade action would not be wide-sweeping and would be used as a nuanced tool to affect foreign policy.
Trump also said that “reciprocal” tariffs slated to go into effect on 2 April will “remain in full force and effect.” Donald Trump signed a memo on 13 February calling for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer, his global trade representative, to put together a country-by-country report on whether “remedies’ are necessary to ensure reciprocal trade relations.
“I’ve decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America,” Trump said, per NBC news. “In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them, but those days are over.”
