‘How You Treat Us Is How We’ll Treat You’: Howard Lutnick Tells Neighbors To Stop Cheating Or Face Tariffs

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick appeared on Fox News Wednesday and warned neighboring countries that the U.S. is prepared to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada unless they enhance border security measures and effectively interdict fentanyl.

In an interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Lutnick said that despite a 30-day negotiation period provided to Mexico and Canada to demonstrate their commitment to these security measures, the likelihood of avoiding the tariffs remains slim. President Donald Trump’s ultimatum was clear, Lutnick said. Halt the trafficking of fentanyl and other harmful activities, or face significant economic consequences.

“The president’s on it. So here’s what he said, tariffs, if you don’t stop the fentanyl, you don’t stop killing Americans, I’m gonna slap a 25% tariff on you, and I’m gonna teach you a lesson,” Lutnick said. “So they immediately put their military on the border. They started stopping it. We’ll just see if they did a good job or not. We’ll see. But then April 2, it’s his turn to say what’s fairness, who’s treating us fairly and that’s the reciprocal terms.”

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“That’s reciprocal. How you treat us is how we’ll treat you. And doesn’t that sound sort of reasonable?”

Addressing the existing U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Lutnick criticized Canada for what he described as side-stepping the deal.

“So on April 2, when he says April 2, that’s the baseline tariff. That says how you treat us is how you get treated. So you think, OK, we have USMCA, right? So we’re supposed to have a free trade agreement with Canada, but they have a 5% national tax,” Lutnick told Baier. “They tax all our dairy products. They tax so many different things. Lumber. They tax our food. It’s outrageous. They basically cheat around the sides. Then when we don’t act, they stop cheating around the sides.”