Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Toronto

We're now hearing from another Canadian premier, the leader of Quebec, Francois Legault.

He says the provincial leaders and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are "unanimous" in backing a strong response to the Trump tariffs. They held an emergency meeting this afternoon to discuss the response to the levies.

He is also the latest premier to say his government will not be doing business with US firms.

Legault echoes other premiers we've heard from this evening in saying this is a chance to diversify Canada's trade away from the US.

Canada sells about 75% of its exports to the US and the country has long talked about increasing trade with other regions - something that has been easier said than done.

Legault says Canada did not ask for this trade war but it will come out stronger once it's over.

Stick with us as we wait to hear from Trudeau soon.

We've been poised to bring you lines from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is due to deliver a news conference to discuss Canada's response to Trump's tariffs shortly.

After some delays, we're currently expecting him to appear at 21:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

You can watch the event at the top of this page by clicking the Watch Live button.

Suranjana Tewari
Asia business reporter

Businesses in South East Asia are watching the news of tariffs closely. Their supply chains reach as far as Mexico and Canada, because of the proximity to the final destination for some of their exports - the US.

But the region relies on China’s might and it’s still the number one place to source materials, equipment and components from. Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are key players in the region’s electronics supply chain. The Philippines and Vietnam play important roles in assembly too.

It would be costly and difficult to completely remove China from a production process. But with Trump forging ahead with 10% tariffs on Beijing, and retaliatory tariffs on American products expected, supply chains could be upended, leading to shortages.

We’ve been here before - Trump imposed punitive duties on Chinese goods in 2018 and 2019, and that lead to some production moving out of China to South East Asia. With fresh tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, there could be further restructuring of manufacturing ecosystems.

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum says retaliatory measures including tariffs will be introduced on the US following President Donald Trump's announcement imposing 25% tariffs on all Mexican imports.

"I instruct the Secretary of Economy to implement Plan B that we have been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defence of Mexico's interests," she writes on X, providing no further details of what these will be.

She also calls out the categorisation of her government as having alliances with criminal organisations as "slander".

• For context:In its tariffs announcement earlier, the White House accused Mexico's government of having “an intolerable alliance” with Mexican drug trafficking organisations and of providing “safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics”.

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

The US Retail Industry Leaders Association, which includes big names such as Home Depot, Target and Walgreens among its more than 200 members, has expressed hope it is still not too late for tariffs to be averted.

It says: “We understand the president is working toward an agreement. The leaders of all four nations should come together and work to reach a deal before Feb. 4 because enacting broad-based tariffs will be disruptive to the U.S. economy.“

It warns that if US tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada do go ahead it risks pushing up prices for US consumers in the shops.

That’s something we've heard from many leading economists and major Wall Street banks.

US inflation rose to 2.9% in December. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, has been struggling to get it back down to its 2% target.

Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Toronto

British Columbia Premier David Eby has called the US levies on Canadian goods a "complete betrayal of the historic bond" between the two nations.

In a televised statement on Saturday night, he says it is a "declaration of economic war against a trusted ally and friend".

All provincial liquor stores will stop buying American liquor from US "red states" in response to the tariffs and will be removing those brands from shelves, he says. It would be a first step in their response, he adds.

The province of Ontario is also considering pulling US booze from shelves.

Eby says he is sympathetic to President Donald Trump's concerns about fentanyl. British Columbia is one of the Canadian provinces hardest hit by the opioid crisis.

"We all need to work together on this global problem, this isn't the way to do it," he says.

His province is one of the least exposed to trade with the US but he says the tariffs will nonetheless be "profoundly damaging".

About 54% of British Columbia's exports go to the US.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada "did not want this" but is "prepared" to respond to Trump's tariff announcement.

"The United States has confirmed that it intends to impose 25% tariffs on most Canadian goods, with 10% tariffs on energy, starting February 4," he writes on X.

"I’ve met with the Premiers and our Cabinet today, and I’ll be speaking with President Sheinbaum of Mexico shortly.

"We did not want this, but Canada is prepared. I’ll be addressing Canadians later this evening."

We're currently expecting Trudeau to deliver a press conference at 20:30 eastern time (01:30 GMT).

Ahead of that, press conferences are being held by Canadian province leaders. We'll bring you more on that next, but in the meantime you can tune into them by pressing the Watch Live button at the top of this webpage.

Mexican government will consider trade war avoidablepublished at 00:58 Greenwich Mean Time 2 February

00:58 GMT 2 February

Will Grant
Reporting from Mexico City

In essence, the imposition of 25% tariffs on Mexican goods has been expected by the Mexican government from the moment Donald Trump won the presidency. In recent days, President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for “cool heads” in dealing with the trade dispute – and with Washington more generally – under President Trump.

On Friday, her Finance Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, a former foreign minister with first-hand experience of the first Trump administration, suggested tariffs would be more harmful to the US given it imports everything from avocados to car parts from Mexico. The Mexican government considers a trade war as unwelcome, unwise and avoidable, especially between supposedly friendly neighbours and close allies.

Yet despite the apparent calm in Mexico City, there will no doubt be some dismay at the aggressive tone of the statement from the White House. It accuses the Sheinbaum government of having “an intolerable alliance” with Mexican drug trafficking organisations and of providing “safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics”.

Few Mexicans are under any illusions of the extent of the complicity between corrupt local and state forces and politicians and the country’s cartels.

But Sheinbaum has only been in office since October and has chosen as her Public Security Minister, Omar Garcia Harfuch, a former police officer with strong credentials for the role.

The Mexican government might have hoped for a different start to the dialogue with the US on the toughest issues of their shared border – namely undocumented immigration and fentanyl trafficking. But the Trump administration, and Trump himself, believes tariffs are an effective way to bring Mexico to the negotiating table – with Washington in the dominant position.

Image source, Getty Images

Danielle Smith, the premier of Canada's oil-rich province of Alberta, says the reduced tariff of 10% on energy is "partially a recognition of the advocacy" her government and the industry took in pushing President Donald Trump and his allies on the value of the oil trade relationship.

Around 40% of the crude that runs through US oil refineries is imported, and the vast majority of it comes from Canada.

Smith met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month as she sought an energy exemption to the tariffs.

She said in a lengthy statement posted to X that the province will work with other Canadian leaders to convince Trump and US lawmakers "to reverse this mutually destructive policy".

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

When it comes to trade with China, the US has been working in tandem with allies in some regards over the last few years.

In 2024, Canada and the European Union joined Washington in imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

They believe that Beijing is unfairly helping make its cars cheaper - something China denies.

Steel is another area of co-operation and frequently features in trade wars because it is important for the defence industry which uses it to build things like warships.

China produces almost 60% of the world’s steel but Western countries have been trying to reduce that share.

They’ve discussed a plan to impose tariffs on steel that doesn’t meet their environmental standards, which would hurt China most, but so far it has come to nothing.

In reaction to President Trump's order to impose a tax of 10% on Chinese goods, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, He Yadong says China's position on the tariff issue is consistent.

Tariff measures are not conducive to the interests of either China or the United States, nor to the rest of the world, he says in quotes cited by China's official state news agency, Xinhua.

Michelle Fleury
BBC World News Correspondent

President Donald Trump may be sanguine about the effect of his new trade war on the US economy, but American industry seems alarmed.

In the first hour, after Trump said he’d signed the executive orders, the construction sector, the clothing and footwear industry, steel workers and the alcoholic drink sector have all publicly objected to these tariffs.

• The National Association of Home Builders’ statement points out that Trump himself has acknowledged and promised to fix America’s housing shortage, and complains that tariffs on Mexico and Canada will increase the cost of building a house, and home prices in the US
• The American Apparel and Footwear Association senior vice president of policy, Nate Herman says “this is not the time to impose new costs on U.S. supply chains. Instead, our industry needs tariff relief and commitment to smart trade policy and strong trade partnerships"
• The United Steelworkers’ says: “The USW has long called for systemic reform of our broken trade system, but lashing out at key allies like Canada is not the way forward"
• The Distilled Spirits Council in a joint statement with Spirits Canada says that if there’s an ongoing trade war “the impact will be felt not just by the distilled spirits industry, but also by consumers and the struggling hospitality sector, which is still recovering from the pandemic"

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

The US farmers group, Farmers for Free Trade, has heavily criticised Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

It’s chairman, Bob Hemesath says: “Placing tariffs on the three largest export markets for American farmers and ranchers, particularly for an extended period of time, will have severe consequences.”

He says American farmers are already struggling because inflation has pushed up their costs at a time when the prices they get for their produce has been falling to the point where many are operating at a loss.

US farmers are fearful they will be the subject of reciprocal tariffs on agricultural exports. In total 2023 saw them sell $174bn (£140bn)-worth of stuff abroad.

In President Trump’s first term he tried to make China buy more US farm products to redress the trade deficit - soybeans in particular. But China never manged to buy as much its government said it would.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be speaking a little later than originally expected tonight.

He is now holding a press conference at 20:30 local time (01:30GMT).

He will be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty, who have all been involved in recent discussions with US lawmakers on tariffs and border security.

Trump uses unusual justification for tariffspublished at 23:46 Greenwich Mean Time 1 February

23:46 GMT 1 February

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

It might seem in-the-weeds, but it’s worth understanding what legal authority President Donald Trump is citing in his tariffs announcement.

During his first term, he conducted trade fights citing rules that allowed tariffs as a response to unfair trade practices or national security concerns.

This time he has declared a national emergency, citing “illegal aliens and drugs” and using that authority to impose the tariffs.

This isn’t an obscure law – it’s often used to impose sanctions on countries like Russia or Venezuela.

But for tariffs, it’s unusual. And unlike the routes he used in the past, it allows the president to skip steps, like investigations and comment periods.

“It’s a pretty powerful statute and one which I think is maybe used in an unprecedented way to do this universal tariff,” trade lawyer Everett Eissenstat, who served as a White House economic adviser during Trump’s first term, told the BBC earlier this month as the idea was first being discussed.

Republican congressman Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has praised President Trump's tariff announcement.

"President Trump is delivering on his promise to take bold action to protect our communities, secure our borders, and bring in additional revenues to the federal government," he says in a statement.

The tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada "send a powerful message that the United States will no longer stand by as other nations fail to halt the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants into our country."

Smith says tariffs must be used as a means to "defeat cartels and end the import of drugs", adding that such measures will also bring in "billions in new revenue to the U.S. government".

The Ways and Means Committee oversees US fiscal legislation, including taxes and tariffs.

Top Democrat Chuck Schumer, the party's minority leader in the Senate, has released a statement criticising President Donald Trump's tariff announcement and warns that such policies will make prices go up in the US.

“It would be nice if Donald Trump could start focusing on getting the prices down instead of making them go up," he says.

“All tariffs are not created equal. Donald Trump is aiming his new tariffs at Mexico, Canada, and China but they will likely hit Americans in their wallets. I am concerned these new tariffs will further drive up costs for American consumers."

"We should be focused on going hard against competitors who rig the game, like China, rather than attacking our allies," he adds.

We have just heard from Donald Trump after he signed an order imposing 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tax on China.

The president says he has implemented today's tariffs "because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl".

"We need to protect Americans, and it is my duty as President to ensure the safety of all," he posted on Truth Social.

"I made a promise on my Campaign to stop the flood of illegal aliens and drugs from pouring across our Borders, and Americans overwhelmingly voted in favor of it."

"We don't need [Canada] to make our cars, we make a lot of them, we don't need their lumber because we have our own forests... we don't need their oil and gas, we have more than anybody," President Trump told global business leaders at the World Economic Forum last month.

So how much of those products does the US currently buy?

Canada’s top customer for its energy is the US, with crude oil imports reaching a record of 4.3 million barrels per day in July 2024, Energy Information Administration, external , external(EIA), external data shows., external Canada accounts for 52% of total US oil imports, according to the EIA.

The North American auto industry also has highly integrated supply chains. Auto parts can cross the borders between the US and Mexico and Canada multiple time before a vehicle is finally assembled.

The US also doesn’t produce enough lumber to meet demand at home. Canada sold the US C$8.4bn of softwood lumber products in 2020., external

Softwood lumber products, like pine, fir and spruce, are mainly used in the construction of family homes.

The trade dispute over Canada’s lumber has been going on for decades with the US, which argues Canada unfairly subsidises the industry by charging minimal fees to log public lands.

In January, Trump told a global business audience that Canada "can always become a state, and if you're a state, we won't have a deficit. We won't have to tariff you”.

The president also reiterated his assertion that the US has a trade deficit with Canada of between $200bn and $250bn (£161bn and £201bn). It's not clear where he got that figure.

The trade deficit with Canada - expected to be $45bn in 2024, according to an analysis by TD Bank, external - is mostly driven by US energy demands.