WASHINGTON — The nation appeared headed for a trade war as President Donald Trump on Thursday said tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico will go into effect March 4 “as scheduled” and China will face an additional 10% tariff.
Tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico were put off earlier this month after the United States’ closest neighbors promised to beef up their policing of their borders to combat the drug trade.
But the president said he was moving ahead with the threats against the nation’s largest trading partners because those countries were still not doing enough to stop the flow of drugs – especially fentanyl – into the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said smuggling out of Canada contributes less than 1% of the fentanyl that hits American streets and data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency bears this out.
Even so, when Trump first threatened to impose tariffs last year, Canada moved to implement a $1.3 billion border plan and announced a joint strike force to combat drug trafficking and other crimes.
Mexico has also stepped up its border policing operations. But on Truth Social, Trump said illegal drugs “are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels.”
“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump wrote.
The tariffs are expected to cool trade between Minnesota and Canada and Mexico, the state’s main trading partners, especially if those nations keep their promises to strike back with tariffs on a wide array of U.S. exports.
According to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, about half of Minnesota’s exports went to Canada, Mexico and China in 2021, up from about one-third in 2002. And the chamber said trade between Minnesota and Canada grew about 39% from 2019 to 2021.
The tariffs, which are taxes on imports, will boost revenue to the U.S. Treasury and help pay for Trump priorities. But exporters will likely pass along most of the cost of that tax to consumers, most economists say.
A majority of Americans also believe Trump’s tariffs will raise the cost of their everyday living expenses.
A Bloomberg-Harris poll determined that by a 59%-26% margin, Americans believe the tariffs will add to the nation’s inflation woes.
Federal downsizing to ramp up
The Office of Personnel Management says about 75,000 federal employees have accepted a buyout offer and there are independent estimates that another 30,000 have been laid off or put on administrative leave.
But the downsizing of the federal government has just begun. The pace of the layoff of civil servants is expected to accelerate over the next two months.
Trump officials sent a memo to government leaders late Wednesday calling for agencies to prepare plans for “large scale reductions” in the federal workforce in March and April.
So far, the layoffs at federal agencies have centered largely, but not exclusively, on probationary employees that have not yet earned civil service protections.
But the next rounds of firings will target career officials. This is likely to result in a fresh series of lawsuits about the layoffs, filed by federal workers unions and by individual federal employees.
“We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to,” Trump said this week at the first meeting of his new cabinet. “We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job.”
Wednesday’s memo from Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Charles Ezell, acting OPM director, said the federal government is “costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt” and that “tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens.”
The memo gave federal agencies a March 13 deadline to submit restructuring plans and work with the Department of Government Efficiency – known as DOGE – on reductions in force.
There are about 18,000 federal workers in Minnesota.
In case you missed it:
- Reporter Winter Keefer told the story of a U.S. Forest Service worker who became a victim of the fast, furious and clumsy attempts to downsize the federal government.
- Congress also took the first steps toward slashing funding for the federal government with a House budget blueprint that would make deep cuts into Medicaid, the government health program for lower-income Americans. The cuts, which still could be derailed, would greatly affect Minnesota’s Medical Assistance patients and its hospitals, health clinics and state budget.
- We also reported on how jurisdictions in Minnesota are bracing for U.S. Justice Department lawsuits over so-called “sanctuary laws.” The agency also says it will cut off federal grants to “sanctuary” states and local jurisdictions.
- Speaking of the “sanctuary” kerfuffle, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter fired back after the White House cited his city in a statement lauding President Trump for “removing illegal immigrant killers, rapists, and drug dealers from our streets.” Said Carter on X: “If the President wants real solutions to avoid a repeat of the record homicide surge America suffered during his first term, we’re happy to help.”
Your questions and comments
A reader took issue with a MinnPost story that said President Donald Trump is likely to reinstate a travel ban on Muslim immigrants and visitors that would also research the activities and speech of Muslims who live in the nation for possible deportations.
“Deported for free speech Trump doesn’t like? Claiming falsely that people have not been properly vetted? Every day the autocrat does more to undermine our democracy and respect in the world. And our four Republican House members support it all,” the reader said.
Another reader commented on a story about local and state policies in Minnesota that bar cooperation with federal immigration authorities when it comes to rounding up people for deportation. Those policies will pit the concept of federalism against state rights when in the growing number of lawsuits about “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
“Very well done. Great article,” the reader wrote. “Was wondering who has jurisdiction, state vs federal. Hopefully this wacked SCOTUS interprets the Constitution appropriately. My guess and hope is the state prevails.”
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
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