With the new tariffs, Trump said, "Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!) But we will Make America Great Again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid."
Trump aides had previously shied from acknowledging that tariffs could raise U.S. consumer prices. Nationwide polls in the U.S. showed that consumer frustration over rising prices during the last four years were a major factor in his November election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump has since acknowledged that it will not be easy to curb higher grocery prices. Trump put the new tariff on energy imports from Canada at 10%, apparently seeking to limit an increase in fuel and electricity prices.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that his country would hit back with 25% percent levies of its own on select American goods worth $106.6 billion, with a first round on Tuesday followed by a second one in three weeks.
Leaders of several Canadian provinces have already announced retaliatory actions as well, such as the immediate halt of U.S. liquor purchases, and more specifically, orange juice produced in the U.S. state of Florida, whiskey in Tennessee and peanut butter in Kentucky, three states Trump won in last November's election and all represented by Republicans, like Trump, in the U.S. Senate.
Kirsten Hillman, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., told ABC's "This Week" show, "We're really disappointed" and "perplexed" by Trump's actions and said she hoped that Trump would back off before Tuesday. But she acknowledged that "it's really in the president's hands" whether that happens.
She said that "less than 1% of illegal immigrants" entering the U.S. travel across its northern border with Canada. She said Canada has invested "in a lot of equipment" to curb unauthorized border crossings and conducted joint exercises with the U.S. to catch migrants.
"It's hard to know what more we could do," she said. "We're not at all interested in escalating" a trade war with the U.S., where she said 99% of the trade is currently tariff-free. "We're eager to build on that."
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had directed her economy minister to "implement Plan B," which includes yet-unspecified "tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico's interests," without specifying what U.S. goods her government will target.
U.S. exports to Mexico totaled more than $322 billion in 2023, Census Bureau data showed, while the U.S. imported more than $475 billion worth of Mexican products.
Sheinbaum assailed Trump's contention that her government had joined forces with drug cartels, a claim he made in announcing the tariff increases.
"We categorically reject the White House's slanderous claim that the Mexico government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any attempt to intervene in our territory," Sheinbaum wrote on X. "If there is anywhere that such an alliance in fact exists, it is in the United States gun factories that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups."
China denounced the new tariffs on its exports, with Beijing saying it would challenge them at the World Trade Organization and take unspecified "countermeasures." The U.S. had a $279 billion trade deficit with China in 2023, the largest figure for any of its trading partners.
That response stopped short of the immediate escalation that had marked China's trade showdown with Trump during his first term as president.
China's commerce ministry said in a statement that Trump's move "seriously violates" international trade rules, urging the U.S. to "engage in frank dialogue and strengthen cooperation."
Trump also has often threatened new tariffs against the European Union. A spokesperson for the bloc said Sunday that it would "respond firmly to any trading partner that unfairly or arbitrarily imposes tariffs."