Can’t Screw Up Relationships With Our Closest Allies: Biden Warns Successor Trump

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said he hoped President-elect Donald Trump would rethink his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it could "screw up" relationships with close allies. "I hope he rethinks it. I think it's a counterproductive thing to do," Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending the Thanksgiving Day holiday with his family. Trump on Monday said he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they clamped down on drugs and migrants crossing the border, in a move that would appear to violate the US-Mexico-Canada free-trade deal. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday she did not specifically discuss tariffs in a call she held with Trump on Wednesday, adding the two had agreed there would be good relations between the two nations. Trump has threatened new tariffs on China as well. Biden noted that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had established a hotline between the two leaders and a direct line of communication between their two militaries.