Trump announced that tariffs on Canada and Mexico will officially take effect on March 4th, and tariffs on China will increase by an additional 10%.

On Thursday, President Trump announced that his proposal to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will officially take effect on March 4th, and at the same time, tariffs on Chinese goods will also be increased by an additional 10% on the same day. Previously, the U.S. government had suspended the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada on February 3rd for a month. However, as the deadline for the exemption approached, the Trump administration had caused confusion among the public about whether the tariffs would be reinstated. On Thursday morning, Trump posted a statement on his social media platform Truth Social, clarifying that the tariffs will take effect as planned. In the statement, Trump claimed that Mexico and Canada had promised to strengthen border control, but "illegal drugs continue to flow into the U.S. at extremely high and unacceptable levels." He emphasized that the U.S. cannot tolerate this situation continuing, and therefore, unless this situation is contained or significantly reduced, the tariffs will take effect as originally planned on March 4th. "We cannot allow this disaster to continue to harm the U.S., so until the issue is resolved or severely restricted, the proposed tariffs will take effect on March 4th," Trump wrote. In addition to reinstating tariffs on Mexico and Canada, Trump also announced that an additional 10% tariff will be imposed on Chinese goods. Previously, Chinese goods were already facing a 10% U.S. tariff, and this adjustment means a further increase in tariff burden on China. Trump also added, "The reciprocal tariff arrangement on April 2nd will still be fully implemented." This indicates that the U.S. government plans to make broader tariff adjustments on April 2nd, involving all trading partners. After Trump's tariff statement was released, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures briefly fell, and there is still uncertainty in the market about the impact of this tariff policy. It is worth noting that Trump's statement contradicts the earlier remarks made by Kevin Hassett, the White House National Economic Council Director, on a foreign media program earlier that day. Hassett had stated that Trump would evaluate a study on April 1st before deciding whether to implement tariff policies on all countries. He quoted Trump's previous day's comments at a cabinet meeting, saying that the president would "make a final decision after evaluating all circumstances." However, Trump's latest statement indicates that he has already decided to take a tougher stance on tariffs towards Mexico, Canada, and China without waiting for the study results in April.