Lutnick: Dairy, Lumber Tariffs for Canada Won't Happen Until April
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the tariffs that the president threatened over Canadian trade policies for dairy and lumber won't come this week, as the president had said two days earlier.
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Lutnick, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on March 9, said, "those changes to USMCA and beyond, they start on April 2."
He said the administration will evaluate progress on fentanyl smuggling, then, as well. Currently, there are 20% tariffs added to other existing tariffs on all Chinese goods, as well as 25% tariffs on Mexican products that do not claim USMCA benefits, 10% tariffs on Canadian energy exports that are not covered under USMCA, and 25% tariffs on other Canadian goods that do not claim USMCA benefits.
He said he referred to Canada's over-quota tariff rate for dairy exports, which he and the president call 250%, but is actually 241%.
"It's outrageous! And you know the president's going to respond to it, but he's agreed not to respond until April 2," Lutnick said.
Lutnick suggested that the reciprocal trade push will lead to explosive growth for agricultural exporters, and said that, in turn, would reduce prices for U.S. consumers of produce and fish.
"The president's going to negotiate country by country. He's going to drive down other countries' barriers," Lutnick said. "The prices of American produce, row crops ... and fish are going to come down because our American industries are going to win around the world."
Later that evening, President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, brushed aside the stock market declines that have followed the tariffs. "Oh, I think the tariffs are going to be the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country. It’s going to make our country rich again," he said.
"We have many companies -- as you know, auto companies are opening up plants now. We’ve had four or five announced already, but many more are coming. And we’re basically going to take back the money -- a lot of the money that we’ve given away over many decades.
"We’ve lost our jobs. We’ve lost our factories. We’ve lost 90,000 factories since the beginning of NAFTA. It’s not that long ago. Ninety thousand factories."
He was asked why he said in an earlier interview that it's conceivable a recession could start this year, and he said, "Who knows? All I know is this: We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money. I’m telling you, you just watch. We’re going to have jobs. We’re going to have open factories. It’s going to be great."