It’s Happening: Trump Administration Confirms Tariffs

The tariffs will be 25 percent on goods from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent on goods from China.

We’ve already told you that there’s a good chance it leads to new cars and auto parts costing more — and at least one automaker has a plan in place.

Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the motivation behind the moves involves drugs and deportees.

From the New York Times:

Ms. Leavitt said the president had chosen to impose tariffs because the three countries “have all enabled illegal drugs to pour into America.”

“The amount of fentanyl that has been seized at the southern border in the last few years alone has the potential to kill tens of millions of Americans,” she said. “And so the president is intent on doing this.”

We’ll see what the economic impacts are, but the consensus seems to be “not good.”

More from the Times:

The tariffs are likely to initiate the kind of disruptive trade wars seen in Mr. Trump’s first term, but at a much larger scale.

Mexico, China and Canada account for more than a third of the goods and services imported to or bought from the United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.

All three governments have promised to answer Mr. Trump’s levies with tariffs of their own on U.S. exports, including Florida orange juice, Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky peanut butter.

The tariffs will immediately raise costs for the importers who bring products across the border. In the nearer term, that could disrupt supply chains and lead to product shortages, if importers choose not to pay the cost of the tariff. And in the longer run, companies may choose to pass the cost on to American consumers, raising prices and slowing the economy.