President Trump said Thursday that his plan for 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods is set to take effect this weekend — because “we don’t need what they have.”
“That’s coming on the 1st, Saturday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office — appearing to dash doubts that he would make good on his threat to slap levies on America’s neighbors over dangerous drug imports and illegal immigration.
The president, 78, did say that he “may or may not” exempt petroleum imports from the new charges.
“We’re going to make that determination probably tonight, on oil. Because they send us oil. We’ll see. It depends what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly, which they don’t.”
“Look, Canada and Mexico, they have never been good to us on trade. They have treated us very unfairly on trade. And we will be able to make that up very quickly, because we don’t need the products that they have,” the president said Thursday.
“We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories. In oil, we have more than anybody and we don’t need anybody’s trees.”
Trump added: “We have to free up some of the tree areas that we have. We have great lumber in this country. We have to free them up environmentally, which I can do very quickly.”
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