WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he intends to impose a 10% tariff on Chinese imports into the United States on Feb. 1, a decision that is sure to escalate trade tensions between the world’s largest economies.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said that the tariffs were in response to China’s role in America’s fentanyl crisis. Trump said that China was sending fentanyl to Canada and Mexico, from where it would be transported into the United States.

The tariff threat comes after Trump said Monday that he planned to impose a 25% duty on imports from Canada and Mexico as punishment for allowing fentanyl and illegal immigrants to cross into the United States.

“We’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada,” Trump said.

Those tariffs would come on top of levies that Trump imposed on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese imports during his first term. Those tariffs were kept in place by President Joe Biden, who imposed additional levies on Chinese electric vehicles, solar cells, semiconductors and advanced batteries.

Trump’s pledge to hit China, Canada and Mexico with tariffs is expected to result in retaliatory action against U.S. industries. Economists have warned that a global trade war could cause inflation to rebound and blunt U.S. economic growth.

Trump signed an executive order Monday directing various agencies to study a wide variety of trade issues with an eye toward future tariffs, but he did not impose any new levies immediately, as he had previously threatened.

Instead he ordered U.S. officials to examine flows of migrants and drugs from Canada, China and Mexico to the United States, and the compliance of those three countries and others with their existing trade agreements with the United States.

Previous deals

Trump negotiated a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico during his first term: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. He also agreed to a limited trade pact with China that was supposed to reward American farmers.

He has since said that he wants to rewrite both agreements during his second term.

Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s president, spoke last week and discussed trade, fentanyl and areas where the world’s two largest economies could work together.

After Trump’s tariff action against China in his first term, he signed on to a broad economic agreement in 2020.

Relations between the countries unraveled during the pandemic, which Trump blamed on China, and Beijing failed to live up to many of its agreements in the deal, including to purchase American farm products.

Talking with China

Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick to be Treasury secretary, said during his confirmation hearing last week that he planned to press his Chinese counterparts to start buying U.S. farm products as their government had promised.

The Treasury nominee also said that he would press his Chinese counterparts to purchase additional products to make up for what the country was supposed to buy over the last four years.

Canada’s response

Canada’s outgoing prime minister and the leader of the country’s oil rich province of Alberta are both confident Canada can avoid the 25% tariffs Trump says he will impose on Feb. 1.

Justin Trudeau and Danielle Smith will argue that Canada is the energy super power that has the oil and critical minerals that America needs to feed what Trump vows will be a booming U.S. economy.

But Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, the manufacturing and automobile hub of Canada, said a trade war is 100% coming.

Trump “declared an economic war on Canada,” Ford said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And we are going to use every tool in our tool box to defend our economy.”

Trudeau said Canada will retaliate if needed but noted Canada has been here before during the first Trump presidency when they successfully renegotiated the free trade deal.

Mexico: ‘cool heads’

On Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stressed the need to keep “cool heads” and look at the wording of what Trump signed, rather than listen to the discourse surrounding it.

On the threat of tariffs, Sheinbaum took solace in that the “ America First Trade Policy ” order that Trump signed Monday talks about the free trade agreement signed with Mexico and Canada during Trump’s first term, which lays out clear processes for disputes. She noted that a formal revision of the agreement is scheduled for July 2026.

This report contains information from the Associated Press.