Politicians react to US tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on the US's three largest trading partners: Mexico, Canada and China. Canadian officials say twenty-five percent tariffs will come into force on Tuesday. We get the reactions on those import duties from former Mexican foreign Minister Jorge Castenada and Miles Yu, China advisor to former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Also on the programme: the BBC visits the Panama Canal ahead of a US Secretary of State visit and; the Taliban has taken over the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul, one correspondent tells us what it was like to stay there.
Image: Trudeau speaks on U.S.-Canada relations in Toronto, January 31, 2025. (Credit: Cole Burston for Reuters).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.2 | Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Sami. |
| 0:09.5 | It is the 1st of February, the day that Donald Trump promised to take what he's called the most beautiful word in the dictionary, tariffs, and turn it into action. |
| 0:18.8 | You might call it T-Day. |
| 0:20.8 | Well, as of now, there has been no official |
| 0:22.4 | news that the tariffs or import duties have come into effect on America's three main trading |
| 0:28.0 | partners, Mexico, Canada and China. But the Mexicans and Canadians are expecting a 25% tariff |
| 0:34.2 | on all US exports with a lower rate for Canadian oil, while China is expecting |
| 0:39.2 | a 10 percent import duty on all goods that it ships to America. Now, Canadian media is now |
| 0:45.3 | reporting the 25 percent tariffs will come into effect there on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters |
| 0:51.8 | on Friday, Mr. Trump said the measure was primarily punishment for what he called the three countries' role in the illegal flow of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. |
| 1:02.0 | It's a pure economic. We have big deficits with, as you know, with all three of them. And in one case, they're sending massive amounts of fentanyl, killing hundreds |
| 1:12.1 | of thousands of people a year with a fentanyl. And in the other two cases, they're making it |
| 1:17.5 | possible for this poison to get in, number one. And number two, we have big deficits, and it's |
| 1:25.0 | something we're doing. And we will possibly very substantially increase it. |
| 1:30.9 | Deficits and fentanyl. Well, with fears of a new trade war looming, |
| 1:35.0 | one leading contender to become Canada's next Prime Minister, Mark Carney, |
| 1:38.6 | has condemned President Trump's approach, |
| 1:41.1 | saying that Canada would not yield to intimidation. |
| 1:44.5 | President Trump thinks Canada will cave in. We will never, ever, bow down to a bully. |
| 1:55.5 | Canadians will always stick together. And we won't stand by as tariffs hurt our workers and their families. |
| 2:04.8 | Canadians need to remain united. Meanwhile, China's foreign ministry has warned Donald Trump that a trade war has no winners. |
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