Canada and Mexico vow retaliation against US tariffs

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00:00For more on the story, our international affairs editor, Ketavan Ghojasthani, joins me now

00:04in the studio.

00:05Ketavan, so what more can you tell us about these tariffs and the reactions we've had

00:08from the three countries?

00:09Well, first of all, what Donald Trump has used in this case is the International Emergency

00:14Economic Powers Act.

00:17And as you said, he cited extraordinary threats coming from these countries, including the

00:24flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration.

00:26In order to justify those tariffs, these three countries, as you said, were top goods trading

00:33partners.

00:35And we're talking here about all sorts of raw materials, as well as agricultural goods

00:42and cars.

00:43So a wide array of goods.

00:46And this is something that many experts are saying, well, maybe this is going to have

00:50a bad impact on U.S. consumers because of the possibility that it's going to increase

00:56the price of these goods.

00:58And we saw the Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pouncing on that last

01:04night with a series of tweets that basically was telling the Americans, look at this, you're

01:11going to be—you're going to be watching the Super Bowl while Donald Trump's tariffs

01:16are going to increase the price of pizza, the price of beer, the price of guacamole,

01:22all of these things to show that this is detrimental to the American people.

01:26Now, initially, Donald Trump's claims and his team's claims was that this was not going

01:30to have consequences on the price of goods in the United States.

01:35And of course, he was elected in part on bringing down inflation.

01:39But now it seems that Donald Trump is changing his tone a little bit.

01:43Earlier today, this morning in the United States, he put out a post on his social media

01:49platform.

01:50And at the end of that post, he said, will there be some pain?

01:54Yes, maybe, maybe not, but we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the

02:00price that must be paid.

02:02So a hint that maybe he is now considering the fact that this might have consequences

02:07on the American economy.

02:09And another sign that Trump is realizing that possible impact is that, for example, on energy

02:15price, on energy goods coming from Canada, it's not going to be 25 percent.

02:20It's going to be just 10 percent because of the possibility of that impact on the U.S.

02:27economy.

02:28The reaction was quick from those three countries, Canada, as you said, saying that it would

02:32match those 25 percent tariffs.

02:35Mexico also saying that they were going to slap retaliatory tariffs, even though we don't

02:40know exactly the amount.

02:42And China also saying that they were going to take the necessary countermeasures.

02:46Donald Trump's not stopping there.

02:48He's already planning on possibly going forward and adding more tariffs and more goods that

02:54will fall under those tariffs.

02:56So more tariffs on these three countries, as you say, but also potentially on the European

03:01Union as well.

03:02Yes.

03:03And this is really clear that in this case, it's not going to be about fentanyl.

03:08It's not going to be about immigration.

03:09It's completely different.

03:12And on Friday, our correspondent, Sonia Dridi, was actually in the Oval Office, and she asked

03:17point blank Donald Trump whether or not he would be likely doing the same thing, slapping

03:23tariffs on the European Union.

03:25Here's the answer of the U.S. president.

03:28Am I going to impose tariffs on the European Union?

03:32You want the truthful answer or should I give you a political answer?

03:36Absolutely.

03:37Absolutely.

03:38The European Union is treated so terribly.

03:44The Europeans have been treating us very, very badly or terribly.

03:48This is a long held grievance by Donald Trump against the European Union.

03:53And basically, he has said in the past many times that the European Union is simply ripping

03:57off the United States.

04:00That is mostly because the U.S. has a goods trade deficit with the European Union.

04:07But he has said also that the Europeans don't take American cars, don't take American goods,

04:12which is not necessarily true.

04:14The EU imports a lot of U.S. goods.

04:18It imports 500s, the EU exports a lot, but also imports quite a bit, billions, hundreds

04:25of billions of U.S. goods.

04:28And so the question now is how is the European Union going to be reacting to that?

04:33The commission already hinted at the fact that possibly they would retaliate, but they

04:38haven't made a decision.

04:40And there's going to be an informal retreat this Monday in Brussels.

04:44And the different countries are already saying that the relationship with the United States

04:49is going to be a key part of this retreat, discussing together how to best respond to

04:55Donald Trump, because the strategy of Donald Trump here with the European Union is divide

05:00and conquer.

05:01You're already seeing some countries like the Italians, for example, saying, well, maybe

05:06we should buy more U.S. goods, more U.S. oil and gas, more U.S. weapons in order to make

05:12Donald Trump come down and to avoid those tariffs.

05:15But some other countries in the European Union are saying, no, we need to stay united.

05:19We need to speak with one voice.

05:20What he is trying to do is separate us.

05:23But we are stronger as a bloc, as a trading partner, as the European Union, not as individual

05:29countries.

05:30So we'll see what comes out of that gathering tomorrow.

05:33But already the Europeans starting to realize that maybe they are next on those tariffs

05:37and they need to figure out very quickly how to answer to Donald Trump.

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