U.S. President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary said the tariffs on Canada and Mexico are still coming Tuesday, though he appeared to suggest there could be changes to the original 25 per cent plan.
Howard Lutnick said in an interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that there would be tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting on the announced March 4 date, though Trump would determine at what levels.
“There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada,” he said. “Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate.”
The secretary’s comments come just three days after the president said his threatened 25 per cent tariffs against both countries were going ahead as scheduled.
In a post on Thursday on his social media platform Truth Social , Trump reiterated his claim these tariffs were linked to the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the U.S. from both countries.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday the government would continue to work to prevent tariffs, including stressing “significant reductions in even the small amount of fentanyl” that crosses the border.
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“We will continue to work, to ensure, to do everything we can to make sure that there are no tariffs on Tuesday,” Trudeau told reporters. “But if ever there were tariffs on Tuesday, as we have all seen, as we were ready to do last time, we will have a strong, unequivocal and proportional response as Canadians expect.
However, Lutnick told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Canada and Mexico had done a “reasonable job on the border.”
“The March 4th is about the border and both Mexico and Canada have done a reasonable job on the border, they’re both working hard on the border,” Lutnick said. “But the fentanyl continues to come into this country and continues to murder our people.
“They have done a lot, so he’s sort of thinking about right now how exactly he wants to play it with Mexico and Canada and that is a fluid situation.”
According to Canadian federal data, less than one per cent of the fentanyl entering the U.S. comes from Canada.
Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency shows that in January, fentanyl seizures at the Canada-U.S. border dropped to its lowest levels since 2023, with less than 14 grams seized during the month. Over 19 kilograms of fentanyl from Canada were apprehended in the last fiscal year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet ministers have said fentanyl seizures at the border have dropped 90 per cent over the past month, something the White House highlighted in a readout of Trump’s call with Trudeau last weekend.
Yet Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday that Canada hasn’t made progress on stopping fentanyl “at all.”
It’s not just Canada and Mexico that will face tariffs Tuesday, however. Trump is also expected to further raise tariffs on China from 10 per cent to 20 per cent. Lutnick said that number is set unless China ends fentanyl trafficking into the U.S.
Lutnick’s comments also come just a day after Trump ordered him to investigate whether tariffs should be imposed on U.S. imports of Canadian lumber. That move would add to existing duties already on Canadian softwood lumber and the tariffs coming on Tuesday.
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