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Howard Lutnick testifies during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.
Howard Lutnick testifies during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. Photograph: Rod Lamkey/AP
Howard Lutnick testifies during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. Photograph: Rod Lamkey/AP

Canada and Mexico can avoid tariffs before Saturday’s deadline, says Trump’s commerce pick

Howard Lutnick testified at his US Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination to head commerce department

Donald Trump’s nominee to run the commerce department, Howard Lutnick, said on Wednesday that Canada and Mexico can avoid looming US tariffs if they act swiftly to close their borders to fentanyl, while vowing to slow China’s advancement in artificial intelligence.

Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street CEO, at his US Senate confirmation hearing said he has advised Trump to pursue across-the-board tariffs country by country to restore “reciprocity” to America’s trading relationships and said he would erect stronger curbs on China’s access to US technology, including advanced AI semiconductors.

Lutnick said Trump’s Saturday deadline for imposing 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico was meant to pressure the two countries to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US. The threatened duties are separate from the broad review of US tariffs, trade deals and other trade policy ordered by Trump when he took office last week.

“So this is a separate tariff to create action from Mexico and action from Canada,” Lutnick said of the 25% duty threat. “And as far as I know, they are acting swiftly, and if they execute it, there will be no tariff.”

Lutnick repeatedly called for a restoration of “reciprocity” on trade with other countries, which is in line with Trump’s vow to erect a universal tariff of 10% on all US imports. He also said he wanted to improve US access to Canada’s largely closed dairy market.

“My way of thinking, and I discussed this with the president, is country by country, macro,” Lutnick told the US Senate confirmation hearing when asked his preference for how Trump should impose tariffs.

“We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies,” Lutnick said. “They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better. We need to be treated with respect, and we can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect.”

Lutnick’s comments echoed those made by Trump, who last week said the European Union was “very, very bad to us” and called tariffs “the only way … you’re going to get fairness”.

Following the US financial market reaction to the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s powerful, low-cost generative AI model, members of the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee repeatedly asked Lutnick how he would maintain US AI leadership.

Lutnick said DeepSeek had misappropriated US technology to create a “dirt cheap” AI model and vowed to impose new restrictions on Beijing’s technology access.

“They stole things. They broke in. They’ve taken our IP,” Lutnick said of China. “It’s got to end, and I’m going to be rigorous in our pursuit of restrictions and enforcing those restrictions to keep us in the lead, because we must stay in the lead.”

More on this story

More on this story

  • Forget Trump’s tariffs, the president’s bond market threat is worse

  • Canada, Mexico and EU criticise Trump’s metal tariffs amid fears of trade war

  • EU says it will retaliate immediately if Trump imposes new tariffs

  • UK Steel warns that Trump tariffs would be ‘devastating blow’

  • UK steel industry fears ‘devastating blow’ from Trump tariffs; FTSE 100 hits record high as markets shrug off trade war fears – as it happened

  • Trump to announce 25% aluminium and steel tariffs as China’s levies against US come into effect

  • What do Trump’s tariffs mean for US-China trade?

  • China has reacted in kind to Trump’s tariffs, but a deal may still emerge

  • Trump agrees to postpone Canada and Mexico tariffs by one month

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