Warnings of trade war after Trump's tariff threat against China, Canada and Mexico

Donald Trump's threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has sparked warnings of a bitter global trade war and drawn sharp responses from Canada, China and Mexico, with the latter threatening retaliatory tariffs.

- Callum Jones New York Oscar Lopez Mexico City

The president-elect announced on his Truth Social platform on Monday night that he intends to hit the three countries with 25% tariffs on all their exports to the US, plus an additional 10% tariff on goods from China - until they reduce migration and the flow of drugs into the country.

China promptly suggested that both sides would lose from an escalation in economic tensions. "No one will win a trade war or a tariff war," Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson at the Chinese embassy in Washington, wrote on X.

Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, criticised Trump's plans, arguing that the proposed 25% duty on all goods would do nothing to halt the flow of migrants or drugs bound for the US border.

"One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses," Sheinbaum said, warning that tariffs would cause inflation and job losses in both countries. "What sense is there?"