Trump contemplates 10% tariffs on China for 'sending fentanyl' to Mexico and Canada

Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on China and other countries appear to be close to fruition. During an announcement-filled press conference, the president stated that he is contemplating 10% tariffs on the Asian giant for "sending fentanyl" to Mexico and Canada and doing little to curb the trafficking of this potent opioid that has taken the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.

"We're talking about a tariff of 10% on China based on the fact that they're sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada," Trump said at a press conference. "How soon on those tariffs? Probably February 1st is the date we're looking at. For Mexico and China, we're talking about approximately, approximately 25%."

Trump probably confused China with Canada when he referred to the 25% tariffs, as he had previously threatened the neighboring countries with high tariffs on its products for not stemming the flow of illegal immigrants and hard drugs into the U.S. border.

Later, Trump again disputed that China historically did not pay tariffs to the United States and, in passing, tackled the European Union, accusing it of "treating the country very badly."

"Until I was president, China never paid not 10 cents to the United States. With me, they paid hundreds of $600 billion or so, or more, more than that even, of tariffs," Trump said. "And if I didn't do that, you wouldn't have a steel mill open in the United States right now. You wouldn't have one steel mill open in the United States. So what I did is I saved the steel industry. I saved other industries, too, with other tariffs."

Then, Trump said, "other countries are big abusers also."

"You know, it's not just China. China is an abuser, but the European Union is very, very bad to us," the president said. "They treat us very, very badly. They don't take our cars. They don't take our cars at all. They don't take our farm products, essentially. They don't take very much. We have a $350 billion deficit with the European Union. They treat us very, very badly. So they're going to be in for tariffs. It's the only way you're going to get back. It's the only way you're going to get fairness."