U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his threat to slap 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico this Saturday, but said oil imports might be able to avoid the tariffs.
Speaking at the White House Thursday, Trump said he would decide “probably tonight” whether oil would be included in the tariffs.
We’re going to make that determination probably tonight on oil,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Because they send us oil. We’ll see, it depends on what their price is.”
He added that the U.S. could compensate for any reduction in imports “very quickly.”
“Because we don’t need the products they have. We have all the oil you need,” he asserted.
Canada supplied more than half of U.S. crude oil imports in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while Mexico accounted for another 11%.
Canada and Mexico have promised retaliation against the tariffs while continuing to reassure Washington that they were committed to border security concerns.
Trump had initially suggested the tariff plan just following his election in November as a way of combating illegal immigration and drug trafficking across the border. He later pegged February 1 as the imposition date shortly after his January 20 inauguration.
Moreover, Trump said that he was weighing a 10% tariff on China, part of efforts to restrict the supply of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which he claimed had killed “hundreds of thousands of people.”
“So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that, and we are in the process of doing that,” he said.
Beijing has cautioned against protectionism and urged dialogue and cooperation as ways out of trade frictions.
