As United States President Donald Trump’s sweeping 25-percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada were about to kick in on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit back.
Even before the tariffs actually came into effect, Trudeau put out a statement, calling the tariffs “unjustified”, and imposing immediate retaliatory tariffs. Then, a few hours later, on Tuesday morning, he addressed a news conference, where he referred to Trump as “Donald”, called the tariffs a “very dumb thing to do”, and accused the US president of trying to cripple the Canadian economy to annex the country.
In contrast, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first comments only came in a news conference on Tuesday. She promised to defend Mexican interests and announced tariffs on US imports. But unlike Canada, Mexico’s tit-for-tat tariffs will only come into effect on Sunday, giving it time to strike a deal with the US.
On Thursday, Sheinbaum …