US President Joe Biden on Thursday said he hoped President-elect Donald Trump would reconsider his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it could “destroy” relations with close allies.
“I hope he’ll think about it again. I think it’s a crazy thing to do,” he told reporters in Nantucket.
“We have an unusual situation in America. We are surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two partners: Mexico and Canada. The last thing we need to do is start to destroy that relationship.”
Trump on Monday said he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico when he takes office in January until they crack down on drugs and migrants crossing the border, a move that would appear to violate the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.
Such a move would destabilize Canada’s economy.
As US president-elect Donald Trump threatens to slap a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada, The National’s Adrienne Arsenault asks CBC’s Peter Armstrong and Alex Panetta to break down what it could mean for the economy and what options Canada has to respond.
Trudeau, Sheinbaum talk to Trump
In a phone call after Trump’s post, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited the things Canada has already done to improve the situation at the border and suggested Canada’s situation was not as bad as Mexico’s.
Trudeau described his conversation with the president-elect as a “good phone call” where he laid out “the facts.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday that she did not specifically talk about tariffs in her phone call with Trump on Wednesday.
After Wednesday’s call, Trump said Sheinbaum “agreed to freeze immigration into Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our southern border.”
Sheinbaum, however, said he has put in place a “responsible” strategy for immigrants before they reach the U.S. border. “The situation in Mexico is not to close borders, but to build bridges between governments and their people,” he said on the X website after Trump’s post.
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