President Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico were not idle threats. They went into effect today.
The Trump administration wanted serious efforts from both countries to curb the flow of drugs over the border but, the White House says that t”hey have failed to adequately address the situation.”
So, game on.
The original plan was to put a 10% tariff on China but on Monday, the White House doubled it to 20%.
The President also announced a plan to put tariffs on “external” agricultural imports. He told farmers to “get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States.”
We are in unchartered waters now. The stock market faltered on the uncertainty of what tariffs will do to the economy.
The Atlanta Fed recently predicted a 2.8% drop in GDP in the first quarter of 2025. This may look bad but, as economist Peter St. Onge points out, “its not necessarily flagging distress. It’s flagging that the country is healing” from the over-spending of the Biden administration. I like the optimism. Let’s hope it’s on target for all of our sake!
China retaliated by announcing new tariffs on U.S. food and agriculture products, which will go into effect on March 10.
