Welp. There goes the chatting with neighbors over the fence after work in the early evening.
Q: “On the tariffs, is there any room left for Canada and Mexico to make a deal before midnight?”
President Trump: “No room left for Mexico or for Canada. No. The tariffs you know, they’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow.” pic.twitter.com/Ou4ssKMtmt
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 3, 2025
Governor Fidelito probably should have resisted the impulse to jet off once again to Europe to help the EU buff Zelensky’s combat boots…
…and maybe stayed home to get this more immediate – and local – contretemps with the States settled.
Stocks went into a bit of a swoon.
…Stocks, already trading in the red, sank further following Trump’s comments.
Trump on Feb. 1 signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with oil from Canada subject to a 10% duty. But he postponed those plans for a month on Feb. 3, after both U.S. neighbors pledged to take steps to address issues at their respective U.S. borders.
Trump confirmed last week that the paused tariffs would go back into effect Tuesday, complaining that illicit drugs are still “pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels.” He also announced that an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports would take effect the same day.
Earlier Monday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had suggested that while Trump would take executive actions on Tuesday, he might soften his tariff demands.
Trump simply wasn’t happy with what the leaders of either country had managed in the grace periods he’d given both.
And let me drop a quick refresher in here on what Canada charges on imports from the US tariff-wise before anyone faints away at the petty meanness of it all.
Do the people complaining about Trump’s tariff threats know we have tariffs on a ton of American products already? 🤔
Removing trade barriers and tariffs will unleash our combined economic potential! pic.twitter.com/oiTKyDrIMz
— Zachary Tisdale 🇨🇦 (@ztisdale) March 3, 2025
Corporations, on the other hand, were already making moves to avoid some of the tariff impacts by moving manufacturing back to the States.
BREAKING: Honda will build the new Civic Hybrid in Indiana instead of Mexico to avoid Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported vehicles. pic.twitter.com/83JhbbHUVR
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 3, 2025
Honda is now singing, ‘Indiana wants me’ and projecting manufacturing that Civic version by 2028.
…It now plans to build the new Civic model in Indiana from May 2028 with an expected annual production of around 210,000, one of the people said. Honda would look to import from nations not hit by tariffs if production in Indiana falls short of demand, one of them said.
All of the people spoke on condition of anonymity as the information has not yet been made public.
A Honda spokesperson declined to comment on changes to the Civic production plan, adding the company would continue to take into account demand and the business environment while considering “optimal production and allocation globally”.
Canadian oil might see and increase in price, but Trump had already been putting pressure on OPEC to get oil prices lowered, and that seems to have paid off today, too.
BREAKING: Oil prices crash to a new 3-month low as OPEC+ agrees to proceed with a production increase in April.
OPEC will also hike production beyond April. pic.twitter.com/Z7dD8vJqh1
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) March 3, 2025
They’re ramping up to a 2.5m bbl per day increase come April.
BREAKING: OPEC+ throws in the towel.
The cartel’s 8 members subject to voluntary extra output cuts will start increasing production from April, planning to add 2.2 million barrels a day of additional output over next 18 months. No more delays. https://t.co/v3TtzTpjyi #OOTT
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) March 3, 2025
Maybe we can finally start refilling the strategic petroleum reserve.
OIl Prices Plunge As OPEC+ ‘Delegate’ Hints At Output Hikes ‘Due To Trump Pressure’ https://t.co/vVufJWLyAn
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 3, 2025
Note – our shale industry price is break-even at about $50bbl and anything sub that they shut down. So Trump doesn’t want it that low. Traders are speculating he’s thinking $60-70 bbl range.
Trump has a 20% surprise planned for China, up from the 10% now. That’s also having an impact, and sometimes it almost seems as if there’s, like, ‘a plan’ about how these things tie together when they happen.
🚨FULL REMARKS: President Trump Makes an Investment Announcement – just announced a new $100 billion investment by TSMC in U.S. chips manufacturing – 3/3/25
President Trump has raised the tariff on China to 20%.
25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico start tomorrow. Honda will build… pic.twitter.com/2qPNkbhGzg
— AJ Huber (@Huberton) March 3, 2025
If the Ukrainian deal comes together and the US can lock on somewhere besides China to process rare earth minerals…?
❤️It’s not only tariffs. With a secure source of rare earth and metals (Ukraine) Apple can domestically produce its products and TSMC can produce chips in the US. By the time the plants are built, our supply chain from Ukraine will be established. The products may be much…
— Charles Arendale (@ArendaleCharles) March 3, 2025
…By the time the plants are built, our supply chain from Ukraine will be established. The products may be much cheaper.
So, this is the schedule of tariffs so far.
Live updates: Trump tariffs set to take effect on Canada, Mexico as Trump says ‘no room left’ for delay https://t.co/PRkTWj1wRp pic.twitter.com/7XWRNsymDc
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) March 3, 2025
Bloomberg is estimating the cost of a new car built in Mexico or Canada could go up by as much as $12K.
Impending tariffs on Canada and Mexico risk driving up US car prices by as much as $12,000, further squeezing consumers and wreaking havoc across the intricate web of automotive supply lines spanning the continent.
The cost to build a crossover utility vehicle will rise by at least $4,000, while the increase would be three times that for an electric vehicle examined in a new study from Anderson Economic Group, an automotive consultant in East Lansing, Michigan. And those costs would likely be passed on to consumers, the study found.
I haven’t seen any fiery rejoinders out of the Mexican president yet. Then again, this news just dropped at the press conference so it’s possible they were either blindsided or are frantically dialing the White House with ideas. They were holding their collective breath just a bit ago, hoping they’d done enough to stave off economic punishment.
Unity is their strength.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that her administration was waiting to see if U.S. President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican imports.
Her Cabinet secretaries for security and trade among others have been in constant communication with their U.S. counterparts and she said there was still the possibility she and Trump would speak Monday.
Trump had threatened to impose tariffs in February before suspending them at the last minute, when Mexico sent 10,000 National Guard troops to their shared border to crack down on drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
“It’s a decision that depends on the United States government, on the United States president,” Sheinbaum said. “So whatever his decision is, we will make our decisions and there is a plan, there is unity in Mexico.”
Being a socialist, there’s always a chance she’ll send out a cheerful ‘piss-up-a-rope, Don‘ note, too, but the Mexicans aren’t really holding any winning cards here.
Hey.
Wait a minute…
