U.S. trade policy: Trump’s tariffs have the world at his mercy

Editorial

15:05 JST, February 5, 2025

While pausing high tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a month, the United States has imposed a tariff on China as planned. U.S. President Donald Trump’s high tariff policies have the world at his mercy.

It is important for other countries to carefully assess Trump’s true intentions and his actions and deal with his tariff policies to prevent his trade war from developing into a full-fledged one.

On Feb. 1, Trump signed an executive order to impose a 25% tariff in principle on imports from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on imports from China.

The tariffs were scheduled to be implemented on Feb. 4, but at the last minute, on Feb. 3, the situation suddenly changed.

Trump held separate telephone talks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. He reportedly agreed to postpone the implementation of the tariffs for one month in exchange for, among other things, Canada and Mexico bolstering their border security.

It is said that Trump threatened to impose high tariffs on the two countries because he is aiming to prevent fentanyl, a synthetic drug whose raw materials are manufactured in China, and illegal immigrants from flowing into the United States.

It is hard to understand why Trump has postponed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, but has imposed a tariff only on China as planned.

On Feb. 3, Trump said he “would be speaking to China, probably in the next 24 hours.” It is possible that maneuvering may be continuing between the two countries.

As a countermeasure, China has announced its own policy to impose an additional 15% tariff on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas and an additional 10% on crude oil, agricultural machinery and other items, starting on Feb. 10.

It is self-evident that a trade war would benefit no one. Trump should stop behaving in ways that roil the world’s stock markets.

In his election campaign pledges, Trump viewed trade deficits as problematic and said he would impose high tariffs to revive domestic manufacturing industries. He also has taken a hard-line stance against illegal immigrants.

Trump may be trying to use high tariffs as a means of making a deal in order to appeal to his supporters by achieving tangible results as soon as possible.

However, the high tariffs have once again been pointed out to be harmful to the United States as they increase cost burdens on U.S. manufacturers with production bases in Canada and Mexico and also help push up prices, which the public is highly dissatisfied with.

The postponement of the high tariffs appears to be a result of Trump suddenly amending his policy. Was this a tactic to extract concessions from the beginning? Or did he get shaken by the stock market turmoil and other factors? One cannot help but adopt a heightened sense of caution regarding his unpredictable behavior.

Each country needs to persistently urge Trump to reverse his high tariff policies.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 5, 2025)