Business | Mar 8th 2025 Edition

Donald Trump carried out his threat to impose tariffs of 25% on most goods imported to the United States from Canada and Mexico (he gave the car industry a one-month reprieve). He also increased the tariffs America imposes on Chinese exports from 10% to 20%, which are in addition to US trade duties that China is already subjected to. The American president warned that he would soon also introduce “reciprocal tariffs” on any country with “unfair” trade imbalances. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the tariffs were “a dumb thing” and imposed retaliatory levies on a range of American products, including peanut butter. China also applied counter-measures and Mexico said it would react soon.