President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed hope that President-elect Donald Trump would back down on his plan to impose tariffs on two of the US’ closest allies.
“I hope he rethinks it, I think it is a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden told reporters on Thanksgiving.
Days before the holiday, Trump pledged to enact a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian imports until the two countries do more to address illegal drugs and immigration. He said the tariffs would be among his first actions upon taking office, reopening the door to a national security law that lets the president impose tariffs with few limitations.
Trump’s vow threatens to roil relations between the US and its two neighbors and may call into question the USMCA, a rewriting of the North American Free Trade Agreement that stands as one of his biggest first-term achievements.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris teed off on Trump and his tariff threats throughout the 2024 campaign. Trump never retreated from more protectionist policy, a break from traditional GOP policy.
The US, Biden said, can’t afford to alienate its two North American neighbors.
“The last thing we need to do is screw up those relationships,” the president said.
It remains to be seen what Trump will do. His first administration imposed various tariffs on US allies’ imports, including on Mexican and Canadian steel and aluminum.
In May 2019, Trump threatened to impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports with the chance for additional escalation if the nation failed to do more to stop illegal immigration. His threat briefly roiled financial markets, but such tariffs never came to fruition.
Mexico is mostly moving to de-escalate.
Trump spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum not long after he made the new tariff threat.
Both sides seem happy with the conversation.
“Just had a wonderful conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
Sheinbaum later said in a statement on X that she had not agreed to effectively close the border. She told reporters on Thursday that she was confident a trade war could be avoided.
“There will be no potential tariff war,” Sheinbaum said, according to The Associated Press.
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