By HONG KONG — China and Canada moved swiftly on Tuesday to retaliate against newly imposed U.S. tariffs, announcing their own levies on U.S. goods that could further disrupt the United States’ trade with its top three trading partners.
A 25% U.S. tariff on almost all goods imported from Canada and Mexico took effect Tuesday just after midnight, along with an additional 10% tariff on goods from China. The three countries together accounted for more than 40% of total U.S. imports last year and are also the top three U.S. export markets.
China will impose additional tariffs of up to 15% on some U.S. goods, its government said, while Canada vowed tariffs of up to 25%. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is expected to announce her response at a news conference in Mexico City on Tuesday morning, the country’s economy ministry said.
The new Chinese levies, which take effect on March 10, include a 15% tariff on chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and a 10% tariff on sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, fruits, vegetables, and dairy and fish products. Chinese state media had reported earlier that U.S. agricultural products would be targeted.
China says the U.S. tariffs undermine cooperation between the world’s two largest economies and they hurt American businesses and consumers, as well as international trade.
“The Chinese people have never believed in coercion or intimidation, nor do we succumb to bullying and hegemonic tactics,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
“Pressure, threats and coercion are not the right way to engage with China. If the U.S. attempts to exert extreme pressure on China, it is simply targeting the wrong country and miscalculating its moves.”
Lin also said China had “taken strong measures” to help stem the international flow of fentanyl, which Trump has cited as justification for the tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, and that the U.S. was using fentanyl as an excuse to wage a trade war.
In addition to the new tariffs, China added 10 U.S. companies to its “unreliable entity” list and 15 to its export control list, mostly defense and intelligence firms with little exposure to the Chinese economy.
Beijing is also filing a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the new 10% tariff, as it did in response to a previous 10% tariff that President Donald Trump imposed on Chinese goods starting Feb. 4.
The combined 20% U.S. tariff on Chinese goods comes on top of tariffs Trump imposed during his first term that were maintained and in some cases sharply increased by former President Joe Biden.
Canada said it would move ahead with an earlier plan to impose 25% tariffs on 155 billion Canadian dollars ($107 billion) in American goods if the U.S. tariff took effect as scheduled.
Tariffs on $20.7 billion worth of goods will take effect immediately, while tariffs on the remaining $86.3 billion in U.S. products will begin in 21 days, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement late Monday. They will remain until the U.S. trade action is withdrawn, he said.
“Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs,” Trudeau said. “Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term.”
Trump, who had been threatening tariffs against Canada and Mexico since November, had accused them of failing to stem the international flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
While precursor chemicals for fentanyl are known to be shipped from China to Mexico, where they are processed into the deadly opioid which is then smuggled into the U.S., Canada says it has virtually no role in the international flow of fentanyl.
According to U.S. customs data, only 0.2% of the more than 20,000 pounds of fentanyl seized at the U.S. border in the 2024 fiscal year came from Canada.
Trudeau said Canada had nonetheless stepped up its drug enforcement efforts, resulting in fentanyl seizures from Canada dropping a further 97% from December to January, to 0.03 pounds.
The tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which Trump issued in an executive order he signed on Feb. 1, had been put on hold for 30 days after the leaders of both countries announced moves to tighten border security. They also include a 10% tariff on Canadian energy imports.
U.S. stocks tumbled Monday after Trump said the tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go ahead as planned, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 650 points, or 1.48%, and the S&P 500 dropping 1.76% for its worst day so far this year.
In Asia, Japan led declines in markets around the region with stocks falling almost 2%, CNBC reported. Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong were muted.
The U.S.-China tariff tit-for-tat comes as Chinese leaders and lawmakers gather in Beijing this week for the country’s biggest political event of the year, the National People’s Congress, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party will signal its priorities and goals for the year, including its approach to the Trump administration.
Though China spared U.S. agriculture in its response to the first 10% tariff, “Trump’s impatient tariff offensive may be changing the calculus” and the U.S. farming sector “should start to feel the pinch,” said Tianchen Xu, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing.
“Sounds like it’s telling the U.S. that ‘we’re really going to hit you hard if you don’t stop,’” he said in an email.
In Canada, meanwhile, retaliation against U.S. tariffs could also extend to its individual provinces. Ontario Premier Doug Ford told NBC’s “Meet the Press NOW” on Monday that Canada would “respond like they’ve never seen before.”
He said he was prepared to retaliate by cutting off the transmission of electricity from his province to the U.S. as well as shipments of nickel, which “will shut down manufacturing because 50% of the nickel you use is coming out of Ontario.”
“I’m sorry to the American people that your president has decided to do this,” Ford said. “I apologize, but he’s giving us no choice.”
