According to Brett Samuels of The Hill, “President Trump on Thursday said he plans to follow through on Saturday on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada.” “We will announce tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a variety of reasons,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He mentioned the inflow of migrants at the southern border, the flow of fentanyl into the United States, and the country’s trade deficit with its neighbors,” Samuels wrote. “‘I’ll be imposing a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, and we’ll actually have to do it because we have huge deficits with those nations,’ he stated. “Those tariffs may or may not rise over time.”

“The step would carry out a warning Trump made in the last days of the 2024 campaign, when he pledged to apply a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico, the United States’ main trade partner, unless the Mexican government stopped the flood of migrants at the southern border. “He later broadened his threat to include Canada and China,” Samuels added. “Mexico and Canada are two of the top trading partners with the United States, and experts have warned that tariffs could lead to increased prices for American consumers for certain goods.”

Tariff implementation details remain sparse. According to Reuters’ David Lawder and Andrea Shalal, “industry groups were furiously seeking any scrap of information on how Trump plans to implement the tariffs — whether he would impose the full 25% with immediate effect, or announce them and delay their implementation to allow some time for negotiations over steps that the countries could take.” “Even immediate imposition would require two to three weeks of public notice before U.S. Customs and Border Protection could begin collections, based on past tariff actions,” Lawder and Shalal said. “…According to two sources familiar with the situation, Trump was anticipated to declare a national emergency over fentanyl and use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify the tariffs overdoses that killed nearly 75,000 Americans in 2023 and illegal immigration.”

“The statute enacted in 1977 and modified after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 gives the president broad powers to impose economic sanctions in a crisis,” the authors wrote. “Among the trade law weapons at Trump’s disposal, IEEPA would provide him with the quickest path to imposing substantial tariffs, as others require lengthy investigations by the Commerce Department or the Office of the United States Trade Representative.