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President Donald Trump said Sunday that Americans could feel “some pain” from the emerging trade war triggered by his tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, and claimed that Canada would “cease to exist” without its trade surplus with the United States.The trade penalties that Trump signed Saturday at his Florida resort caused a mix of panic, anger, and uncertainty, and threatened to rupture a decades-old partnership on trade in North America while further straining relations with China.Trump on Sunday night returned from Florida and threatened to impose steeper tariffs elsewhere, telling reporters that the import taxes will “definitely happen” with the European Union and possibly with the United Kingdom as well.He brushed aside retaliatory measures from Canada, saying, “If they want to play the game, I don’t mind. We can play the game all they want.” Trump said he plans to speak with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts on Monday.By following through on his tariffs campaign pledge, Trump may also have simultaneously broken his promise to voters in last year’s election that his administration could quickly reduce inflation. That means the same frustration he is facing from other nations might also spread domestically to consumers and businesses.“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” Trump said in a social media post. “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”His administration has not said what specific improvements would need to be seen in stopping illegal immigration and the smuggling of fentanyl to merit the removal of the tariffs that Trump imposed under the legal justification of an economic emergency. But Trump, speaking to reporters after Air Force One, landed said that the trade imbalances with Canada and Mexico would also need to be erased as a condition for lifting the tariffs.The president also tried to clarify his post about the possible inflation, saying on Sunday: “We may have in the short term, a little pain, and people understand that. But long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world.”The tariffs are set to launch Tuesday and triggered confusion as Canada’s U.S. ambassador, Kirsten Hillman, told ABC News that her country was perplexed by the move because “we view ourselves as your neighbor, your closest friend, your ally.”In his Truth Social post, Trump took particular aim at Canada, which responded with retaliatory measures. Trump is placing a 25% tariff on Canadian goods, with a 10% tax on oil, natural gas, and electricity. Canada is imposing 25% tariffs, more than $155 billion Canadian (US$105 billion), on U.S. products, including alcohol and fruit.Despite Trump’s assertions that the U.S. does not need Canada, one-quarter of the oil that America consumes per day is from its ally to the north. He reiterated his false claim that America subsidizes Canada by running a trade imbalance, a reflection in part of Canada exporting energy to the U.S.Trump contended that without that surplus, “Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of CanadaAND NO TARIFFS!”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is encouraging Canadians to buy more Canadian goods, and says Trump’s moves will only cause pain across North America. More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. Canada will first target alcohol, cosmetics, and paper products; a second round later will include passenger vehicles, trucks, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy products, and more.Canada is the largest export market for 36 states and Mexico is the largest trading partner of the U.S.Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, also announced new tariffs and suggested the U.S. should do more within its own borders to address drug addiction. She and Trudeau spoke after Trump’s announcement and agreed “to enhance the strong bilateral relations” between Canada and Mexico, according to the prime minister’s office.The Chinese government said it would take steps to defend its economic interests and intends to file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization.For Trump, the open question is whether inflation could be a political pressure point that would cause him to back down. As a candidate, Trump repeatedly hammered Democrats over the inflation under President Joe Biden that resulted from supply chain issues during the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden administration’s own spending to spur the recovery and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Trump said his previous four years as president had low inflation, so the public should expect the same if he came back to the White House. But he also said specifically that higher inflation would stagger the U.S. as a nation, a position from which he now appears to be retreating with the promise of even more tariffs to come.The U.S. president did not offer details Sunday about when he would impose tariffs elsewhere, but he said they would be coming “pretty soon” for the EU, which is also composed of U.S. allies.Larry Summers, treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, said the tariffs were a “self-inflicted wound to the American economy.”He told CNN’s Inside Politics that “on the playground or in international relations, bullying is not an enduringly winning strategy. And that’s what this is.” And the ultimate winner, Summers suggested, would be Chinese leader Xi Jinping because “we’ve moved to drive some of our closest allies into his arms” and “we’re legitimating everything he’s doing by violating all the international norms that we set up.”Outside analyses make clear that Trump’s tariffs would hurt the voters that he intended to help, meaning that he might ultimately need to find a resolution.An analysis by the Budget Lab at Yale shows that if the tariffs were to continue, an average U.S. household would lose roughly $1,245 in income this year, in what would be the overall equivalent of a more than $1.4 trillion tax increase over the next 10 years.Goldman Sachs, in a Sunday analyst note, stressed that the tariffs go into effect on Tuesday, which means they’re likely to proceed “though a last-minute compromise cannot be completely ruled out.”The investment bank concluded that because of the possible economic damage and possible conditions for removal “we think it is more likely that the tariffs will be temporary but the outlook is unclear.” Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report. Josh Boak, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Just days after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Ruby Robinson went to Detroit’s immigration court to post a notice that a help desk his organization ran for people facing deportation was no longer available.The desk staffed by the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center shut down after a Trump executive order prompted the Justice Department to instruct nonprofit organizations “to stop work immediately” on four federally funded programs that provided information to people in immigration proceedings.“There were individuals in the waiting room who we otherwise would have been able to assist, but we’re not able to do so at this time,” said Robinson, managing attorney for the center, which he said has helped about 10,000 people since it began operating the help desk in December 2021.Without the programs that educate people in immigration courts and detention centers about their rights and the complicated legal process, many will end up navigating the system on their own. Advocates worry that due process and the backlogged immigration courts will suffer as Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.A coalition of nonprofit groups that provide the services filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the stop-work order and seeking to immediately restore access to the programs.Despite the loss of federal funding, staff from the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights went to a Virginia detention center to provide services the day after the Jan. 22 stop-work order. They had spoken to about two dozen people when detention center staff escorted them out, telling them they could no longer provide those services, Amica executive director Michael Lukens said, describing the stoppage as “devastating.”“We often hear that people don’t know what’s happening. Why are they detained? What’s going to happen next? And we are being stopped from even giving that basic level of orientation,” Lukens said.Lawyers running a help desk inside Chicago’s busy immigration court provided services to more than 2,000 people in 2024. The National Immigrant Justice Center started the effort in 2013 with private funding and expanded it three years later with federal funds.Since the stop-work order, the organization has provided scaled-down services, but they are unsure how long they will be able to continue that with the gap left by federal funding cuts, spokesperson Tara Tidwell Cullen said.Several organizations said they’ve been told that posters informing people of their services and information about legal help hotlines have been removed from detention centers.Congress allocates $29 million a year for the four programsthe Legal Orientation Program, the Immigration Court Helpdesk, the Family Group Legal Orientation, and the Counsel for Children Initiativefunding that’s spread among various groups across the country providing the services, Lukens said, adding that the programs have broad bipartisan support. The amount is the same regardless of the number of people they’re helping, and the organizations often do additional fundraising to cover their costs, he said.Trump previously targeted these programs during his first term, but this time things are different.In 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the funding would be pulled from the programs, but the threat of legal action by a coalition of organizations that provide the services, as well as bipartisan support from members of Congress, caused the Justice Department to reverse course.This time, the action was more abrupt, with the stop-work order issued just hours before it took effect and program staff being barred from detention centers.Immigration law is incredibly complicated and, unlike in criminal courts, people do not have a right to have an attorney appointed if they cannot afford one, and many end up going through the system without legal representation.Immigration courts throughout the country are clogged by a backlog of about 3.7 million cases, which can leave people in limbo for years. When people know what to expect and have their affairs in order, hearings move more quickly because judges don’t have to explain the basics to each person who appears before them, advocates assert. It can also reduce lines at filing windows in immigration courts because people know what forms they have to fill out and can get help completing them correctly.People can make informed choices to either move forward with a case knowing their chances and the risks involved or, if they don’t want to go through a court battle or don’t see any available relief that fits their situation, they may decide not to fight and to just go home, said Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, which operates in three detention centers and the immigration court in San Antonio, Texas.“Stopping programs that actually help people get the information they need isn’t going to fix the system,” Yang said. “It’s just going to make it worse.”The organizations also make sure due process rights are respected, alert people to imminent filing deadlines, ensure that translators are available, and help avoid deportation orders that could unlawfully return asylum seekers to a harmful situation, advocates said.Milagro, a 69-year-old woman from Venezuela, arrived in the U.S. in May 2024 when she got an appointment through a U.S. government app after spending four years in Mexico. The Associated Press agreed not to use her last name because she fears that speaking out could affect her pending case.She filed an asylum application, citing a fear for her life in Venezuela as part of the political opposition. She didn’t have a job when she arrived and used the help desk operated by Estrella del Paso at the immigration court in El Paso, Texas, for help with her asylum application. The last time she went, she discovered it was closed because of the stop-work order.“You feel a kind of frustration because the window that you had open to ask, to get advice, is closed,” she said in Spanish. “It is a feeling of helplessness and loneliness.”Without their help, she said, “I would have had to pay money that I do not have.”But with a court appearance coming up in February, she fears she will have to use much of the salary she earns as a caretaker for a 100-year-old woman to pay someone to help her. Kate Brumback, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Gerber Products Company and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a serious recall notice, discontinuing all batches of Gerber’s Soothe n Chew Teething Sticks due to fears that they could present a choking hazard for babies. The baby food brand confirmed that at least one emergency room visit has been linked to the product. The recall and discontinuation notice was posted to the website of Nestlé USA, Gerber’s parent company. Here’s what you need to know: Which products were affected? The recall includes both Strawberry Apple and Banana flavors in all package sizes. Where were the products sold? The affected products were available online and sold in the following U.S. states and territories: Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana North Carolina Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin Puerto Rico You can find images of the products on the FDA website. What should I do if I have these teething sticks? Gerber has advised parents and caregivers to stop using the product immediately and return it to retailers for a refund. Anyone with health concerns should contact a healthcare provider. What has Gerber said about this? In a statement along with the recall notice, the brand said, “We sincerely apologize for any concern or inconvenience this action represents to parents, caregivers, and retail customers.” It added that it is working with and cooperating with the FDA on the recall.
Category:
E-Commerce
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