The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said that tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico will enter into force on Saturday and are evaluating whether it includes the oil that matters from both countries.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said Thursday that his 25% tariffs on the products of Canada and Mexico They will enter into force on Saturday, but is still considering whether to include oil from those countries as part of their import taxes.
“We could do it or not,” Trump told journalists in the Oval Office in relation to the implementation of Canada and Mexico's oil tariffs.
Trump said that his decision will be based on whether the price of oil charged by the two commercial partners is fair, although the basis of their threatened tariffs is related to stopping the illegal immigration and smuggling of the chemical substances used for fentanil.
The risk of Canadian and Mexican oil tariffs could undermine the promise that Trump made several times to reduce general inflation by decreasing energy costs. The costs associated with tariffs could move to consumers in the form of higher prices in gasoline, an issue that Trump put in the center of his presidential campaign by promising to reduce energy costs by half in one year.
“Within a year from January 20, we will reduce its energy prices in half throughout the country,” Trump said in an event in Pennsylvania in 2024.
Ap Votetast, an extensive electorate survey, found that 80 % of voters identified gasoline prices as a concern. Trump won the vote of almost six out of 10 voters who said they were worried about gas stations.
The United States imported almost 4.6 million barrels of daily oil from Canada in October and 563,000 barrels of Mexico, according to the administration of energy information. The daily production of the United States during that month averaged about 13.5 million barrels per day.
Matthew Holmes, Executive Vice President and Head of Public Policy of the Canada Chamber of Commerce, said Trump's tariffs would be “a tax for the United States” in the form of higher costs.
“This is a situation in which everyone loses,” said Holmes. “We will continue working with partners to show President Trump and Americans that this does not make life more affordable. It makes life more expensive and adds our business integrated in chaos. ”
But Trump was not worried that imports to imports from the United States business partners could have a negative impact on the US economy, despite the risk shown in many higher prices economic analysis.
“We don't need the products they have,” Trump said. “We have all the oil they need. We have all the trees they need, that is, wood. ”
The president also said that China would pay tariffs for its export of the chemical substances used to manufacture the fentanyl. He had previously declared a 10 % tariff that would be on other import taxes charged on China products.
Oil prices were quoted at approximately $ 73 per barrel on Thursday afternoon. The prices fired in June 2022 under the command of former president Joe Biden to more than $ 120 per barrel, a period that coincided with general inflation reaching a maximum of four decades that fed a broader feeling of public dissatisfaction with the Democratic Government .
Gasoline prices have an average of 82 cents per liter ($ 3.12 per gallon) in the United States, approximately the same price as a year ago, according to the US car association.