Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Sami.

It is the 1st of February.

The day when Donald Trump takes what he calls the most beautiful word in the dictionary tariffs

and turns it into action.

You might call it T-Day. The White House has said that from today,

the Trump administration is placing tariffs or extra import duties of 25% on all imports from Mexico

in Canada, while Chinese goods entering the United States will face a tax of 10%, a triple

whammy for America's three biggest trading partners.

President Trump has also warned he'll impose tariffs on goods from the European Union.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr Trump said there was no room for last-minute negotiations to avoid the new tariffs.

He said they were in response to the flow of the illegal

drug fentanyl, which he claimed some countries were allowing to enter the United States.

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 of

thousands of people a year with a fentanyl. And in the other two cases, they're making it possible

for this poison to get in, number one. And number two, we have big deficits. And it's something

we're doing. And we will possibly very substantially increase it.

Well, Mr. Trump indicated that Canadian oil exports to the United States

would actually face a lower tariff imposed later on this month.

Speaking to the BBC, a leading contender to become Canada's next Prime Minister, Mark Carney,

condemned the move.

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