Trump criminal offenses: Canada, Mexico and China countered US presidents

Canada, Mexico and China and have announced countermeasures against the far-reaching tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on the goods of the three countries. Canada immediately reacted with counter -tariffs. From Tuesday, tariffs of 25 percent are to be introduced on US goods, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in the evening at a press conference. The tariffs planned by Canada are intended for US goods with a total value of $ 155 billion. In addition, the Canadian government are considering measures in other areas, such as trading in critical minerals.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said that she had instructed Economics Minister Marcelo Ebrard to implement a plan that is considering tariffs. China also announced “corresponding countermeasures”. In addition, a lawsuit will be submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to protect China’s rights and interests, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said. China sharply criticized the US criminal offenses. The Ministry of Commerce left it open whether the announced countermeasures are countermeasures.

US President Trump had previously made his threat and imposed far-reaching tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China. Trump signed corresponding instructions. According to this, tariffs of 10 percent are raised on all imports from China and 25 percent on imports from neighboring countries Mexico and Canada. A set of 10 percent should apply to energy imports from Canada.

In Trump’s decrees there is also a passage that the tariffs could be increased or expanded if the countries were to react with retaliatory measures – for example, with counter -tariffs on goods from the USA. Customs are a kind of surcharge to imported goods. They are due on the border. Trump’s decision has serious consequences.

Mexico is the most important trade partner in the United States. No other country exports to the United States. According to economists, Trump’s customs policy is likely to harm both economies through higher inflation and the loss of jobs. More than 80 percent of Mexico’s total exports go to the United States. Thousands of companies and millions of jobs depend on it.

Trump does not only criticize images in the trade. He also uses punitive tariffs to achieve Mexico’s tougher action against migration and drug cartels. He also claims to avoid Chinese companies by investing tariffs by investing in Mexico and exporting them to the USA from there.

Customs against Mexico are also likely to hit companies from Germany hard, especially the auto industry. Almost all manufacturers and many suppliers use Mexico as a cheap production location-and from there serve the US market. VW, Audi and BMW have their own factories in the country, Mercedes-Benz produced in a community work with Nissan. And at Audi alone, 98 percent of the cars go to export, 40 percent of them to the United States.

New customs barriers in the USA are becoming a serious problem here, says industry expert Stefan Hecht from the management consultancy Advyce & Company. Because with an additional surcharge, it hardly pays off to send cars from Mexico to the USA. In response, he expects the manufacturers to move at least part of the production of Mexico to the USA, where VW, BMW and Mercedes also have works.

The United States is the most important and largest trading partner for Canada – almost one trillion dollar of goods and services are handled between the two neighboring countries of North America. In addition to close cooperation in the auto industry, Canadian companies sell a number of agricultural products as well as oil, gas and minerals to the United States.

Trump also justifies the punitive measures at Canada with the fact that immigrants from Canada would bring crime and drugs to the USA and the Canadian government do not do enough about it.

Customs Washington on all imports from Canada are likely to make the products more expensive and therefore less attractive on the US market, so that they should ultimately harm the producer in Canada.

The tariffs against Canada could also cause problems in Europe – at least for Volkswagen. Because the Wolfsburg are planning a battery cell factory in Ontario near the US border, which is to supply the Group’s e-car works in the USA. Trudeau’s government had attracted the billion dollar project with high subsidies.

Customs are now “poison”, warns Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach and speaks of a “Super-Gau for this investment”. But this is still a future music: the production in St. Thomas near Toronto is not to start until 2027.

Among other things, Trump criticizes China, Fentanyl flies in a large scale to the United States. He argues until the ceases will exist. The new US tariffs are likely to be a further burden for the already battered Chinese economy. Beijing has been trying to postpone its retail for years, but the United States remains the most important export market and thus an important support for many companies. In the United States, customs duties on Chinese were likely to lead to higher prices.

Car manufacturers from Europe will probably also feel the tariffs against China – if only indirectly. Almost all manufacturers and suppliers operate large works in China. However, it is produced almost exclusively for the Chinese market, there are no significant exports to the USA.

Industry expert Stefan Hecht from the management consultancy Advyce & Company nevertheless expects effects to reach Germany. In view of the new hurdles on the US market, Chinese manufacturers such as BYD are likely to push to Europe even more than before, he believes. “Europe then increases as a sales market.”

The following could be increasing competition and price struggles on the German car market. “The local manufacturers will clearly feel that,” says Hecht. After all, manufacturers like VW have already struggled with high overcapacity in Germany. It remains to be seen, such as the EU Commission, which has already imposed punitive tariffs against electric cars from China, will react to Trump’s new punitive measures.

The European Union has to expect tariffs from Trump even. “Absolutely,” the president recently said when asked whether he would also raise tariffs on products from the EU. “The EU treated us so badly,” he said on the grounds. The United States had a “huge deficit” in the trade with the European Union. “So we will do something very considerable with the European Union,” he announced – without naming details.

Trump has long been a thorn that European companies sell significantly more goods in the United States than American companies in the EU. There had already been a violent trade dispute between the USA and the EU in Trump’s first term. In his government years from 2017 to 2021, Trump had put a large scale of tariffs on a large scale to carry out trade conflicts with other countries.