WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday, Feb. 27, said that his proposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada remain on track to go into effect March 4 because drugs are still pouring into the U.S. from across their borders at "very high and unacceptable levels."

The tariffs had been scheduled to begin in early February, but were delayed for 30 days. There is some confusion about the extent of the tariffs. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News: "There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are — we're going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate."

Trump also said reciprocal tariffs on major trading partners were slated to take effect April 2. Trump signed a memorandum Feb. 15, calling for "fair and reciprocal" trade tariffs on all major U.S. trading partners, including longtime allies. The memo calls on Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary, and Jamieson Greer, global trade representative, to assess within 180 days in a country-by-country report whether "remedies" are necessary to ensure reciprocal trade relations. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in Montreal on Thursday, said Canada will have an ‘immediate and very strong response’ if U.S. President Donald Trump places tariffs on Canadian goods on March 4.

According to the New York Times, Mexico’s leaders hope they have found a formula for staving off tariffs by trying to appease Trump. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum is deploying 10,000 troops to deter migrants from reaching the United States, building on efforts to break up migrant caravans and busing migrants to places far from the border.

National security

In addition, on Saturday, March 1, Trump signed a pair of actions that he said were meant to increase domestic lumber production, including a directive for the Commerce Department to investigate the possible harms that lumber imports pose to national security.

The orders set deadlines for guidance on production, streamline permitting, and assess possible risks that imports pose to national security. 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Saturday that orders an investigation into U.S. imports of wood products, an industry that the president sees as “essential to the national security, economic strength, and industrial resilience” of the United States.

The order directs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to lead an investigation into the national security implications of the U.S.’s current imports of timber, lumber, and manufactured wood products. This will include looking into demand for timber and lumber in the U.S., if domestic production can meet domestic demand, the significance of major foreign exporters in meeting U.S. demand, as well as any predatory trade practices that affect the U.S.’s competitiveness in the industry.

The results of the inquiry could allow the president to apply tariffs to lumber imports. A White House official declined to say how long the inquiry would take.

"The production of timber, lumber, paper, bioenergy, and other wood products (timber production) is critical to our Nation’s well-being," according to the executive memorandum. "Timber production is essential for crucial human activities like construction and energy production.  Furthermore, as recent disasters demonstrate, forest management and wildfire risk reduction projects can save American lives and communities.

According to Trump, the United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but "heavy-handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers."