Donald Trump had warned during his electoral campaign: “Customs rights” are “his favorite words”. The American president has carried out his threat of heavily taxing imports from the first three trade partners of the United States with the entry into force, this Tuesday, March 4, of customs duties against Canada and Mexico and new taxes on Chinese products, triggering a rapid response from Beijing and Ottawa. So many measures that could “bring customs duties in 2026 to their highest level since 1936,” said KPMG economist chef Diana Swonk, interviewed by AFP. And on their side, the states concerned retaliate.
Entry into force of customs duties on Canada and Mexico
The absence of an agreement between Washington, Ottawa and Mexico City before the deadline marking the end of the postponement of customs duties imposed in Canada and Mexico by Donald Trump opened the door on Tuesday, March 4, with their implementation, with uncertain consequences for the three savings. Unless there is a new postponement granted by the US head of state, imports from the two neighbors of the United States will now be taxed up to 25 % -10 % for Canadian hydrocarbons -, a measure claimed by Donald Trump in retaliation of inaction, according to him, of Ottawa and Mexico City to limit fentanyl traffic in the country.
The American president had left little hope on Monday afternoon, believing that there was “no more room for maneuver for Mexico and Canada. Customs duties are a fact. They will come into force (Tuesday)”. The decrees were on Monday evening ready to be published on the Federal Register, the Official Journal of the Federal Government, could see an AFP journalist. In total, $ 918 billion in products from the two neighbors of the United States could be affected, with a real impact expected for the American economy.
Canada response
For its part, Canada retaliated: the American giant will set up customs duties on American products, this Tuesday, March 4, in retaliation for those announced by Donald Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday, considering that “nothing justified these” American. “If the United States’s customs duties come into force, Canada will retaliate from midnight by implementing customs duties of 25 % out of $ 155 billion in American goods,” said the head of the Canadian government in a statement.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, for her part, already assured that Mexico had “a plan A, a B plan, a plan C and a plan of these new taxes.
China’s counterattack
Donald Trump signed an additional customs duties to all Chinese products entering the United States on Tuesday. In response, China unveiled additional customs duties on Tuesday March 4 on a series of American products. They will amount to 15 % on the chicken, wheat, corn and cotton American entering the Empire in the middle. Other imported American products such as sorghum, soy, pork, beef, seafood, fruits, vegetables and dairy products will be the subject of an additional 10 %tax.
“Washington, by acting unilaterally, undermines the multilateral trade system” and “weakens the basics of economic and commercial cooperation between China and the United States,” the Chinese finance ministry justified in a statement. The new taxes will come into force after March 10, 2025, said it.
If Washington persists in carrying out a “war of customs rights, a trade war or any other form of conflict, China will be ready to accompany it to the end,” also said the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry at a regular press conference.
The concern of American consumers
The prospect of customs duties, however, begins to worry Americans, both consumers and businesses. The Council of Businesses China-Etats United States, which has 270 firms across the Atlantic, estimates as well as customs duties “will take over our global competitiveness”. At the end of February, two consumer confidence indices plunged, weighed down by the fear of an inflation rebound. This struggles to return to the 2 % referred to in the federal reserve (Fed) and even accelerated slightly at the end of 2024. An essential fact, while the American president owes mainly his victory to his promise to lower prices and improve the purchasing power of households.
However, according to the National Federation of Retail Commerce, tax Canadian and Mexican products “will force the Americans to pay more expensive for their purchases”. On Monday, the publication of the ISM index of industrial production was accompanied by comments on fear, in a certain number of industries, to see customs duties become a new reality. Another index of the Atlanta Fed now anticipates a sudden fall in American growth, even expecting severe contraction in the first quarter.