White House: Mexico is ‘serious’, Canada appears to have ‘misunderstood’ Trump’s executive order

By Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is “serious” about President Donald Trump’s executive order on tariffs but Canada has “misunderstood” it.

Trump on Saturday ordered sweeping tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China, demanding they stanch the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the United States, kicking off a trade war that could dent global growth and stoke inflation.

“The good news is that in our conversations over the weekend, one of the things we’ve noticed is that Mexicans are very, very serious about doing what President Trump said,” White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hasset said on CNBC.

“Canadians appear to have misunderstood the plain language of the executive order,” Hasset added.

When asked what Canada and Mexico must do to lift their tariffs, Trump told reporters on Sunday they “have to balance out their trade, number one.”

“They’ve got to stop people from pouring into our country…they have to stop people pouring in, and we have to stop fentanyl. And that includes China,” Trump said.

(Editing by Toby Chopra and Bernadette Baum)