Canada, China, Mexico vow retaliation to Trump tariffs

Canada, China and Mexico have ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the US decision to slap 25 per cent tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada and 10 per cent on imports from China.

In a lengthy post on X, Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government sought dialogue rather than confrontation with its top trade partner to the north, but that Mexico had been forced to respond in kind.

"I've instructed my economy minister to implement the plan B we've been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defence of Mexico's interests," Sheinbaum posted, without specifying what US goods her government will target.

The United States is by far Mexico's most important foreign market, and Mexico in 2023 overtook China as top destination for US exports.

Mexico has been preparing possible retaliatory tariffs on imports from the US, ranging from 5 per cent to 20 per cent, on pork, cheese, fresh produce, manufactured steel and aluminium, according to sources familiar with the matter. The auto industry would initially be exempt, they said.

Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on X that Trump's tariffs were a "flagrant violation" of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

"Plan B is underway," Ebrard said. "We will win!"

Canada will retaliate with 25 per cent levies on a raft of US imports, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday, warning Americans that Trump's actions would have real consequences for them.

As relations between the long-time allies who share the world's longest land border reach a new low, Trudeau told a news conference he was slapping tariffs on C$155 billion ($107 billion) of US goods. Those on C$30 billion will take effect on Tuesday, the same day as Trump's tariffs, and duties on the remaining C$125 billion in 21 days, he said.

China's government on Sunday denounced the Trump administration's imposition of a long-threatened 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports while leaving the door open for talks with the US that could avoid a deepening conflict.

Beijing will challenge President Trump's tariff at the World Trade Organization - a symbolic gesture - and take unspecified “countermeasures” in response to the levy, which takes effect on Tuesday, China's finance and commerce ministries said.

That response stopped short of the immediate escalation that had marked China's trade showdown with Trump in his first term as president and repeated the more measured language Beijing has used in recent weeks.