Then-Republican presidential nominee and current US-President-elect Donald Trump looks on during a rally at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Uniondale, New York, US, Sept. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

i24 News – US President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Saturday for tariffs to be placed on all imports from Mexico, Canada, and China, risking a trade war.

Naming the influx of illegal aliens into the US, as well as the rising fentanyl crisis, as reasons for the 25 percent tariffs on the neighboring countries, he also raised existing tariffs on China by 10 percent.

In addition to the economic costs of illegal workers coming in, the order said “gang members, smugglers, human traffickers, and illegal drugs and narcotics of all kinds are pouring across our borders and into our communities.”

More than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized last year at US borders, which is estimated to represent “a fraction” of what enters.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed Americans after imposing sanctions in kind against US imports: “Tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities. They will raise costs for you including food at the grocery store and gas at the pump. They will impede your access to an affordable supply of vital goods crucial for US security such as nickel, potash, uranium, steel and aluminum.”

The tariffs “violate the free trade agreement that the president and I along with our Mexican partner negotiated and signed a few years ago,” Trudeau said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also announced a similar moves, although it was not yet detailed how exactly Mexico will respond. “When we negotiate with other nations, when we talk with other nations,” she said, it was “always with our heads held high, never bowing our heads.”

She rejected the suggestion that her government was in any way allied with criminal organizations, hitting back that US armories have sold weapons to these gangs.

China’s foreign ministry said it would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and “take corresponding countermeasures. On the issue of fentanyl, it said it “provides support to the US on the issue of fentanyl,” but that is was ultimately a US problem.