The Trump tariff flip-flop
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Over the weekend President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be putting an import tax on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China. He said he wanted to stop people from bringing fentanyl into the country and prevent migrants from crossing the borders. The leaders of the other countries are working to find alternative solutions with Trump, and on Monday the tariffs against Mexico and Canada were delayed for a month after he had conversations with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. But if they take effect later, the steep taxes could push the price of many items up for Americans, like cars and cell phones.
Martine Powers speaks with Mexico City correspondent Mary Beth Sheridan about how these tariffs would work and what the impact of them could be on Americans and the globe.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy and Sabby Robinson. It was mixed by Sam Bair. And edited by Reena Flores.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered an unusual speech. He had a forceful |
| 0:08.6 | message for Americans, one that almost sounded like a threat. I want to speak directly to Americans, |
| 0:16.1 | our closest friends and neighbors. This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians, |
| 0:22.9 | but beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people. |
| 0:32.0 | For the past few days, Canada, Mexico, China, and the U.S. |
| 0:36.2 | have been in the middle of escalating tensions over tariffs. |
| 0:40.9 | President Trump has said he's going to put an import tax on items coming from those countries. |
| 0:46.5 | For China, that would be a 10% tax. |
| 0:49.2 | For Mexico and Canada, it would be 25%. |
| 0:52.3 | And Trudeau argues that this will hurt regular people, not just Canadians, |
| 0:57.6 | but Americans. |
| 0:59.5 | As I have consistently said, tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting |
| 1:08.6 | down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities. |
| 1:14.1 | They will raise costs for you, including food at the grocery store, gas at the pump. |
| 1:20.9 | We'll see whether these tariffs will actually happen. |
| 1:24.8 | The tariffs on Chinese imports are still expected to take effect early Tuesday. |
| 1:29.6 | But on Monday, we heard that tariffs on Mexico and Canada will pause for a month. And this |
| 1:35.5 | fight is already having a major impact on the American economy. From the newsroom of the |
| 1:43.2 | Washington Post, this is Post reports. I'm Martin Powers. It's Monday, |
| 1:48.0 | February 3rd. Today, the back and forth over Trump's tariffs. We are digging in with Mary Beth |
| 1:55.1 | Sheridan, who's the Mexico City Bureau Chief for the Post. She's going to break this all down, |
| 2:00.1 | the basics on tariffs, and how they work. |
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