WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that he expects to put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1, while declining to flesh out his plans for taxing Chinese imports.
Trump made the announcement in response to reporters’ questions while signing executive actions in the Oval Office on his first day back in the White House.
Trump threatened tariffs of as much as 60% on China during his campaign, but appeared to temper his plans after a phone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said Monday there would be more discussions with his counterpart in the world’s second-largest economy.
“We’re going to have meetings and calls with President Xi,” Trump said.
Trump is placing a big bet that his executive actions can cut energy prices and tame inflation and that the tariffs will strengthen the economy instead of exposing consumers to higher prices. But it’s unclear whether his orders will be enough to foster the growing economy with the lower prices he promised voters.
Trump specifically blamed the inflation on the $1.9 trillion in pandemic aid provided in 2021 by then-President Biden, while saying that his predecessor’s policies restricted oil drilling despite domestic output being near record levels.
“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
Orders on Monday included opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling and easing the regulatory burdens on oil and natural gas production. He also declared a national energy emergency in hopes of jump-starting more electricity production in the competition with China to build out technologies such as artificial intelligence that rely on data centers using massive amounts of energy.