President Donald Trump says 25 percent tariffs will be levied against Canada and Mexico on March 4, and added there is “no room” for last-minute negotiations to prevent them.
“No room left for Mexico or for Canada,” Trump told reporters during a press conference in the White House on March 3. “The tariffs, they’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow.”
Trump then repeated previous comments that there had been “vast amounts of fentanyl” coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico. Since first announcing he was considering the tariffs on the two countries in November 2024, the U.S. president has connected it to border security issues, saying illegal immigrants and drugs are flowing into the United States.
Trump also said on March 3 that auto manufacturers in particular should consider moving their factories to the United States, “in which case they have no tariffs.”
“What they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, here in the United States,” he said.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had said he and other advisors would meet with Trump before he imposed the tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
“I'll be sitting across the table from the president pointing out that they have done a good job on the border, but they haven’t done enough on fentanyl, and he’s got to decide how he wants to play,” Lutnick said during an interview with CNN on March 3.
Lutnick said while the two countries had done a “nice job on the border” by bringing illegal crossings to lower levels, fentanyl deaths in the United States have fallen by less than 15 percent. “The president really cares about saving Americans’ lives, so they’ve got to get the fentanyl down, and that’s really [about] attacking the cartels and getting this down. So that’s why it’s fluid,” he said.
When asked if the tariffs would be less than 25 percent, Lutnick said he would be pointing out Canada and Mexico’s border accomplishments to Trump. “There’s not a lot of uncertainty tomorrow, but he knows they’ve done a good job on the border. They haven’t done enough on fentanyl. Let’s see how the president weighs that today,” he said.
Canada and Mexico were both previously able to secure a one-month pause from 25 percent tariffs set to come into force on Feb. 4, with Trump signing an executive order for the tariffs to instead apply on March 4.
In his last-minute phone call with Trump on Feb. 3, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to appoint a “fentanyl czar” and designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations, among other actions on border security. Trump said the tariffs would be paused until a “final economic deal” could be made with Canada. A similar agreement was announced for Mexico after the country promised to deploy 10,000 troops to its border to enhance security.
During a cabinet meeting on Feb. 26, Lutnick had said Canada and Mexico could avoid 25 percent tariffs if they proved to Trump that they had taken sufficient action on border security and fentanyl. But Trump interjected, saying, “It’s gonna be hard to satisfy.”
Ottawa’s Response to Tariff Threat
Since Trump first mentioned his plans for 25 percent tariffs, Ottawa has been working to bolster border security in response. In December 2024, Ottawa announced a $1.3 billion border security package that included the creation of a new North American task force targeting organized crime and synthetic drug trafficking, as well as 24/7 border surveillance.Speaking to reporters on March 2 from a summit in the United Kingdom, Trudeau said Canada had implemented several measures leading to “significant reductions in even the small amount of fentanyl that was passing across our borders.”
Trudeau said Ottawa would continue working to ensure there would not be tariffs implemented on March 4, but if there were, then Canada would have a “strong, unequivocal and proportional response.” The Canadian government had previously proposed retaliating with its 25 percent tariffs on C$155 billion (US$107 billion) worth of American products starting the same day.
