(Washington) President-elect Donald Trump could declare a national emergency to impose tariffs of 25% on Canadian products.
Greta Peisch, a former general counsel in the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, says the next president could use U.S. federal law allowing the White House to regulate trade after declaring a national emergency , the EEPA.
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“When we look at the connections that the president-elect is making between the imposition of tariffs and issues like fentanyl and border security, we see that he has not explained how he will exercise his authority, but most likely is that it uses the IEEPA,” she emphasizes.
This law gives authority to the president to control all business transactions after declaring a state of emergency. No president has yet done so, but Richard Nixon used a similar law, the Trading with the Enemy Act, to briefly impose a 10 percent tariff on all goods imported into the United States.
This is the new weapon in the arsenal of customs tariffs.
Greta Peisch, a former general counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative
Mr. Trump knows about this law. He had threatened to use it against Mexico during his first term if that country did not control illegal immigration at the border.
“He ultimately did not have to do it, because an agreement had been reached,” recalls the lawyer.
Mme Peisch points out that while there are other ways Mr. Trump can impose tariffs on himself. She cites as an example a clause in the Trade Act of 1974. The president used it to impose tariffs on China during his first term or the Trade Expansion Act which allowed tariffs to be imposed on China. Canadian steel and aluminum.
The CUSMA concluded during Mr. Trump’s first term will not protect Canada and Mexico against protectionist ambitions. The agreement allows each signatory to take necessary measures for national security, Peisch said.
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs on Mexico and Canada as soon as he takes office if these two countries do not prevent the arrival of drugs and illegal migrants in the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s residence, and promised to invest in border security. Despite this, the president-elect said he still intends to impose tariffs.
PHOTO FROM THE X ACCOUNT @TRUMPDAILYPOSTS
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Donald Trump and members of his future administration during a visit to Mar-a-Lago in November 2024.
The president-elect even went further by declaring that Canada could become the 51ste American state, suggesting this week that it could use the “economic strength” of its country to achieve this.
Mr. Trudeau responded by asserting that “never, ever, would Canada be part of the United States.”
Canadian authorities are trying to find a way to counter the president-elect.
“We must be ready,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared Friday before a meeting of the ministerial committee on Canadian-American relations. The government is considering retaliatory measures should Mr. Trump carry out these threats.
Wolfgang Alschner, a specialist in international economic law at the University of Ottawa, says current U.S. threats are a different order from previous trade conflicts between Canada and the United States.
According to him, we could speak of “economic coercion” on the part of future American authorities.
“The United States wants to use economic means to achieve non-economic gains. This is the definition of economic coercion. This is not something we saw during Mr. Trump’s first term. »
