Trump announces March 4 tariffs for Mexico, Canada, extra 10% for China

The 25-percent tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports into the U.S. market earlier pledged by the Trump administration will go into effect next Tuesday after a month-long postponement.

Lee Seung-jae reports.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump put a pause on his plans to impose 25-percent tariffs on imports coming in from Canada and Mexico.

This would allow the two neighboring countries to negotiate a deal to possibly avoid a tariff war in the region.

However,.. Trump on Thursday announced that those tariffs will take effect on March 4th as his administration sees insufficient progress being made to curb the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. from bordering countries.

A White House official also noted that while migration issues have seen improvements, there are still concerns over fentanyl deaths in the U.S., blaming the inflow of illicit drugs coming into the country.

On top of the March 4th imposition of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office, that Chinese imports will see an additional 10 percent tariff, resulting in a cumulative 20 percent tariff.

"The drugs come in through Mexico. They come. A lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them come from China. And that's why we did as ten. It's ten plus ten. Okay. Was there confusion on that? Ten plus ten. It's a second ten."

Trump also added that come April 2nd, announcements will be made on countries that the Trump administration will impose its reciprocal tariffs on.

"And then on the 2nd of April, we have reciprocal tariffs that's reciprocal, where we charge countries what they're charging us. And nobody should have a problem with that. We have a, it's reciprocity. It's something that I think everybody I have spoken to said that's fair. And it is. If somebody charges us 25%, we charge them 25. If somebody charges us ten or 15 or 30 or 70, which charge them an exact like amount."

Meanwhile, Trump's economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNBC in an interview on Thursday that the U.S. leader will decide on tariff policies for all countries after April 1st.

The advisor said that there's a study coming out on April 1st, on which Trump will base his tariff decisions for all countries.

Mexican and Canadian officials are set to meet with U.S. officials on Thursday and Friday, in the hopes of avoiding the 25 percent tariff by Trump.

Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.