President Joe Biden spent Thanksgiving morning giving back to first responders on Nantucket, while also taking time to give his thoughts on his successor’s threats to issue tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
Biden told reporters he hopes President-elect Donald Trump “rethinks” his Day 1 proposal, calling it a “counterproductive thing to do.”
“We have an unusual situation in America. We’re surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the two allies: Mexico and Canada. And the last thing we need to do is screw up those relationships. I think we’ve got them in a good place,” Biden said Thursday.
Trump said this week that he plans to sign an executive order when he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, that would charge Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on all products those nations send to the United States, in an effort to stop the flow of drugs entering the country and illegal border crossings.
He also vowed to charge China with an additional 10% tariff on top of any additional tariffs on products coming into the U.S., arguing the country wasn’t doing enough to stop the flow of illicit drugs.
Economists widely forecast that tariffs of this magnitude would increase prices paid by American shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers.