Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada's Justin Trudeau posted on social media about plans to police their borders. New tariffs on goods from China are still set to go into effect

Updates as of February 6, 2025
Rail and Truck Updates
Truckers Fear Job Losses if Tariffs Imposed
Truckers fear that the 25% tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump is still threatening to impose will have disastrous consequences for their sector, as trade between Canada and the United States would suffer.
"If these tariffs remain in place at these levels for an extended period of time, it could be the final nail in the coffin for many trucking fleets," warned Canadian Trucking Alliance President Stephen Laskowski. "It's a bleak picture."
Tariffs on Canadian imports into the United States, which ultimately won't take effect for at least 30 days, would be the biggest trade shock north of the border in nearly a century, according to RBC Economics.
Several of the 5,000 member companies of the Canadian Trucking Alliance are already struggling due to weaker consumer demand. "It's a hypercompetitive situation," Laskowski said of the struggling sector.
"When the economy catches a cold, the trucking industry catches pneumonia."
Some 120,000 Canadian truckers haul cross-border shipments, he said. Shipments to the United States account for about two-thirds of all Canadian truckloads, according to transportation technology firm Arrive Logistics.
Read more in an article from La Presse (translated from French).
By: La Presse, CIFFA
Updates as of February 5, 2025
Air Updates
Air Cargo Industry Jolted by Trump Tariffs on Chinese E-Commerce
President Donald Trump’s weekend order eliminating a duty-free exemption for low-value e-commerce shipments from China could upend business models for many companies engaged in international trade, but stakeholders say the air cargo sector could take the biggest hit.
Chinese and U.S. marketplaces like Shein, Temu, AliExpress, Amazon and Shopify also could be significantly constrained in the short term.
The U.S. imported more than 2.5 million tons of cargo by air from China last year, including about 1.3 million tons of cheap e-commerce products that are potentially impacted by the U.S. decision to close the trade privilege as of this week. The rest is general cargo now subject to a new 10% tariff on Chinese goods, according to data from Netherlands-based air cargo consultancy Rotate.
Electronic retailers, logistics service providers, express carriers, customs brokers and others are scrambling to understand the new rules and how to reorient workstreams accordingly. Trade professionals say they are confused about how to adjust operations with only a vague announcement from the White House and few answers so far from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The situation is still very fluid and projected impacts could change depending on whether President Trump changes his mind – as he did Monday, giving Canada and Mexico a one-month reprieve on 25% tariffs – or the types of coping mechanisms companies identify.
Read more in an article from FreightWaves.
By: Eric Kulisch, FreightWaves; CIFFA
International Business/Government
China Responds to Trump with Added Tariffs on Certain Products
China will levy additional tariffs on some U.S. imports starting February 10 in response to the Trump administration’s tariff actions, China’s Ministry of Finance announced Tuesday.
A 15% tariff will be levied on coal and liquefied natural gas, and a 10% tariff will be placed on crude oil, agricultural machinery and some cars, according to the announcement.
China said in a separate announcement that it is implementing export controls on some metals such as tungsten and tellurium.
Read more in an article from Supply Chain Dive.
By: Max Garland, Supply Chain Dive; CIFFA
Trump Says He Wants Ukraine to Supply U.S. with Rare Earths
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he wants Ukraine to supply the United States with rare earth minerals as a form of payment for financially supporting the country's war efforts against Russia.
Trump said Ukraine was willing, adding that he wants "equalization" from Ukraine for Washington's "close to $300 billion" in support.
Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cellphones and other electronics. There are no known substitutes.
Read more in an article from the American Journal of Transportation.
By: Reuters; American Journal of Transportation; CIFFA
Updates as of February 4, 2025
Trump Pauses Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, But Not China
MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON/OTTAWA, Feb 3 (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump #suspended his threat of steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Monday, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on #border and crime enforcement with the two neighboring countries.
U.S. tariffs on China are still due to take effect within hours.
Both Canadian Prime Minister Justin #Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia #Sheinbaum said they had agreed to bolster border enforcement efforts in response to Trump's demand to crack down on immigration and drug smuggling. That would pause 25% tariffs due to take effect on Tuesday for 30 days.
Canada agreed to deploy new technology and personnel along its border with the United States and launch cooperative efforts to fight organized crime, fentanyl smuggling and money laundering.
Mexico agreed to #reinforce its northern border with 10,000 National Guard members to stem the flow of illegal migration and drugs.
The United States also made a commitment to prevent trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico, Sheinbaum said.
"As President, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of ALL Americans, and I am doing just that. I am very pleased with this initial outcome," #Trump said on social media.
The agreements forestall, for now, the onset of a trade war that economists predicted would damage the economies of all involved and usher in higher prices for consumers.
After speaking by phone with both leaders, Trump said he would try to #negotiate economic agreements over the coming month with the two largest U.S. trading partners, whose economies have become tightly intertwined with the United States since a landmark free-trade deal was struck in the 1990s.
CHINA TARIFFS STILL PLANNED
No such deal has emerged for China, which faces across-the-board tariffs of 10% that are poised to begin at 12:01 a.m. ET on Tuesday (0501 GMT). A White House spokesperson said Trump would not be speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping until later in the week.
Trump warned he might increase tariffs on Beijing further.
"China hopefully is going to stop sending us fentanyl, and if they're not, the tariffs are going to go substantially higher," he said.
China has called fentanyl America's problem and said it would challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organization and take other countermeasures, but also left the door open for talks.
The latest twist in the saga sent the Canadian dollar soaring after slumping to its lowest in more than two decades. The news also gave U.S. stock index futures a lift after a day of losses on Wall Street.
Industry groups, fearful of disrupted supply chains, welcomed the pause.
"That's very encouraging news," said Chris Davison, who heads a trade group of Canadian canola producers. "We have a highly integrated industry that benefits both countries."
Trump suggested on Sunday the 27-nation European Union would be his next target, but did not say when.
EU leaders at an informal summit in Brussels on Monday said Europe would be prepared to fight back if the U.S. imposes tariffs, but also called for reason and negotiation. The U.S. is the EU's largest trade and investment partner.
Trump hinted that Britain, which left the EU in 2020, might be spared tariffs.
Trump acknowledged over the weekend that his tariffs could cause some short-term pain for U.S. consumers, but says they are needed to curb immigration and narcotics trafficking and spur domestic industries.
The tariffs as originally planned would cover almost half of all U.S. imports and would require the United States to more than double its own manufacturing output to cover the gap - an unfeasible task in the near term, ING analysts wrote.
Other analysts said the tariffs could throw Canada and Mexico into recession and trigger "stagflation" - high inflation, stagnant growth and elevated unemployment - at home.
By: David Alire Garcia, Trevor Hunnicutt and David Ljunggren, Reuters; CIFFA
China Renews Threat to Counter U.S. Tariffs
TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, Mexico and China is ramping up over the production and importation of the opiate fentanyl, along with trade surpluses and illegal border crossings by migrants from across the globe.
Here is what Beijing says about it:
What Has Been China’s Reaction So Far?
China has reiterated its threat to take “necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests” following Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on China for allegedly doing too little to stem the production of precursor chemicals for fentanyl.
The Foreign Ministry statement issued Feb. 2 did not mention any specific retaliatory measures, but said “China calls on the United States to correct its wrongdoings, maintain the hard-won positive dynamics in the counternarcotics cooperation, and promote a steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relationship.”
China says the U.S. action violates World Trade Organization rules and has vowed to bring a case before the body that governs global commerce.
The Ministry of Public Security on Feb. 2 made near identical charges and the Commerce Ministry also issued a closely worded statement.
Who Does China Say Is to Blame?
Trump accuses China of allowing the production of fentanyl, which is then made into tablets in Mexico and smuggled into and distributed throughout the U.S., which records some 70,000 overdose deaths from the drug annually.
China says the U.S. must hold itself to account instead of “threatening other countries with arbitrary tariff hikes,” the Foreign Ministry said. “The United States needs to view and solve its own fentanyl issue in an objective and rational way ... (China is) one of the world’s toughest countries on counternarcotics both in terms of policy and its implementation.”
Experts say China executes an unknown number of people each year for smuggling drugs, but domestic drug use is relatively low.
The Ministry of Public Security statement said the U.S. has not reported any fentanyl precursor seizures originating in China since Beijing began to take legal action.
What Other Issues May Be Having an Impact?
China’s enormous trade deficit with the U.S., which reached nearly $1 trillion last year, has been a constant target of Trump’s complaints. Tariffs would make Chinese goods more expensive for U.S. consumers, who will ultimately have to pay a significant part of the cost of importing everything from toys to clothing.
China’s vital export market could be impacted if U.S. consumers decide to “buy American.” The Chinese domestic economy has failed to respond to a range of government-backed stimuli, while foreign infrastructure projects and other major government initiatives that add to the country’s already high public debt threaten more economic stagnation.
That is already starting to derail Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to overtake the U.S. in key economic and political indicators, threatening his ultimate ambition to conquer the island republic of Taiwan and assert Chinese primacy in the Indo-Pacific region.
Stopping illegal immigration has also been one of Trump’s core political messages, and was named in tariff actions against U.S. neighbors Mexico and Canada. Illegal arrivals from China are considered a fraction of such numbers, but Trump has put virtually every country on notice that he will hold them accountable for their nationals who enter the U.S. outside the law.
By: Transport Topics; CIFFA
Putin Says Europe Will ‘Stand at the Feet of the Master’ as Trump’s Tariffs Alarm Allies
Russia’s Vladimir Putin warned Europe will quickly “stand at the feet of the master” after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, provoking a global markets meltdown and alarm among European allies.
Following Trump’s decision at the weekend to impose trade duties on America’s closest trading partners, Russian President Putin said Sunday that Trump’s second administration would “restore order” in Europe.
“I assure you: Trump, with his character, with his persistence, he will restore order there quite quickly. And all of them, you will see — it will happen quickly, soon — they will all stand at the feet of the master and will wag their tails a little. Everything will fall into place,” Putin told pro-Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, who presents the primetime “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” program on the Rossiya-1 state TV channel. The comments were reported by state news agency RIA Novosti and translated by Google.
Putin did not give any further explanation as to how Trump could “restore order” — and it’s uncertain what he was referring to with his comments — but Moscow has expressed hopes that its own relationship with the U.S. could improve under Trump.
The Kremlin on Monday said it was watching on as “tensions” build between the U.S. and its allies.
“You know, there are many tensions there, so, of course, we have no desire to be associated with all this in any way or to evaluate it in any way,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his daily press briefing.
“Let those countries that are participating in this process sort it out,” he said, according to comments reported by RIA Novosti, and translated by Reuters.
Trump sent global markets into a tailspin Monday after he announced a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada and a 10% levy on goods from China. The tariffs are set to come into effect Tuesday.
The president said tariffs on the European Union could follow “pretty soon,” but said there could be a deal with the U.K. which, unlike the U.S.′ other largest trading partners, has a more balanced trading relationship with its trans-Atlantic ally.
Officials from the EU have previously suggested that the bloc could respond to U.S. tariffs “in a proportionate way,” with the European Commission on Sunday stating that it would “respond firmly” to any U.S. duties.
While under the enormous weight of international sanctions due to its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia stands to benefit from U.S. tariffs on its trading partners as they are likely to suffer a steep economic hit.
The tariffs also sow disarray among erstwhile allies — partners who, like the U.S. under former President Joe Biden, have looked to weaken Russia’s leadership and economy with punitive measures designed to stymy Moscow’s economic and geopolitical power.
Moscow hopes for a more favorable relationship with Washington now that Trump is back in power, given that he and Putin have had cordial relations in the past, with both leaders expressing admiration for each other, previously.
Putin: European leaders lack conviction
The U.S.′ allies in Europe fear the president will stop U.S. military funding for Ukraine and could push Kyiv into peace talks to end the war, which is approaching its third anniversary. Putin said last month that he hoped he and Trump could meet soon to discuss the war and energy prices.
Ukraine warns that it could be pushed into a “bad” peace deal in which it’s forced to concede territory to Russia, and that Moscow will regroup before targeting it again in the future.
European leaders are expected to discuss the impending threat of U.S. tariffs when they meet in Brussels on Monday although, ostensibly, the key theme of the meeting is strengthening their defense strategy.
Trump has already warned European leaders that they need to be responsible for their own security, lambasting NATO allies for not meeting defense spend commitments and saying last month that he could ask them to spend even more on defense.
If Trump pulls U.S. funding for Ukraine, Europe will have to confront a decision whether to shoulder the financial burden of Ukraine alone. A number of leaders — particularly those in Eastern Europe who are seen to be on friendlier terms with the Kremlin — are already skeptical of more sanctions on Russia and funding for Ukraine.
Criticizing his European counterparts on Sunday, Putin said European leaders on the Continent lacked conviction in their beliefs.
Praising former European leaders such as France’s Charles De Gaulle, Jacques Chirac and Germany’s Gerhard Schroeder, Putin said such leaders “had their own opinion and the courage to fight for this opinion, to express it, to talk about it and to try to at least implement it in practical work.”
“Today, there are practically no such people there,” Putin said, RIA Novosti reported.
By: Holly Ellyatt, CNBC; CIFFA