OAN Staff Abril Elfi
9:12 AM – Saturday, April 5, 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a new plan for California to have “strategic” relationships with countries announcing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. to exclude the state’s products from their retaliatory taxes.
Advertisement
On Friday, Newsom (D-Calif.) made his announcement in a video posted on social media.
“Donald Trump’s tariffs do not represent all Americans,” Newsom said. “And on behalf of 40 million Americans that live in the great state of California, the tentpole of the U.S. economy … the dominant manufacturing state in America, our state of mind is around supporting stable trading relationships around the globe.”
He added he’s directed his administration to seek out new opportunities to “expand trade” and “remind trading partners around the world that California remains a stable partner.”
According to Fox News Digital, sources in Newsom’s administration told the outlet that the statement was a direct response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff plan, which includes a 10% baseline levy on all imports to the United States and greater percentages for other major traders.
The outlet reported that the Newsom administration is concerned that California’s almond sector, a key agricultural exporter, would lose billions of dollars when countries such as China, India, and the European Union implement retaliatory tariffs.
According to a Newsom official, the new Trump tariffs will also have an impact on access to vital goods such as construction materials required to rebuild following the Los Angeles wildfires. The United States presently imposes a tariff of more than 14% on Canadian timber, with the rate potentially increasing to over 27% by 2025.
State officials claim that retaliatory tariffs will cause “major disruptions” to cross-border supply chains in the California-Baja region, arguing that taxing component goods each time they cross the border will raise the final price of the finished product, which will be passed on to Californians.
Trump said Thursday leaving the White House that “the markets are going to boom.”
“The stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom, and the rest of the world wants to see if there is any way they can make a deal,” he said.
“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence. For years, hard working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense,” Trump said. “But now it’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt, and it’ll all happen very quickly.”
According to the Constitution, individual states do not have the legal authority to negotiate or make global trade agreements involving tariffs. The federal government has exclusive authority over trade policy, including tariffs. Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution specifically allows Congress the authority to regulate commerce with other nations, including the ability to apply tariffs and negotiate trade agreements.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below
