This story by Chase Woodruff appeared on Colorado Newsline on March 7, 2025.
President Donald Trump’s chaotic ‘game of chicken’ in a trade war with Mexico and Canada threatens to raise consumer costs, undermine Colorado’s economy and complicate the state’s efforts to close a billion-dollar budget gap, Treasurer Dave Young said last Thursday.
For the second time, Trump has backed off plans to impose broad tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, signing an executive order Thursday to delay the 25% tariffs on most goods from the two countries until April 2. The move, announced earlier this week, had sent Wall Street stocks tumbling and heightened fears of an economic slowdown.
Speaking alongside other state treasurers in a virtual press conference, Young said that the “chaos and confusion” caused by Trump’s actions are making carrying out his duties, which include safeguarding the state’s cash flows and investing public funds responsibly, much more difficult.
“While I’m glad to see that President Trump may be reconsidering his policies with this announcement of a temporary pause, we know this will continue to cause chaos,” said Young. “The right thing to do is to end this game of chicken today.”
Young, a Democratic former state lawmaker from Greeley, has served as Colorado’s state treasurer since 2019. One of four statewide executive offices elected by voters, the treasurer oversees the management, investment and disbursement of state funds, along with a handful of savings and loan programs and the state’s Division of Unclaimed Property.
Trump first announced the tariffs soon after taking office in January, before agreeing to a 30-day ‘pause’ on February 3. Despite insisting on Monday that there would be “no room left for Mexico or Canada” to negotiate, Trump backed off his plans again by exempting most goods — those covered under the 2018 trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, negotiated during Trump’s first term — from the tariffs in an executive order signed Thursday.
Young cited statistics linking over 115,000 Colorado jobs to trade with Canada and Mexico, and highlighted the Suncor oil refinery in Commerce City, which processes oil imported from Alberta, Canada, as one way in which Coloradans would be hit particularly hard by the tariffs.
“A trade war will result in punishing prices, brutal layoffs and decreased activity, undermining Colorado’s vibrant economy,” said Young.
With Colorado lawmakers already facing an estimated $1.2 billion budget shortfall this year, the economic headwinds created by tariffs, and the continued uncertainty about when and how they will go into effect, could have serious consequences for the state’s ability to fund public services, he added.
“This is uncertainty that actually adds to the crisis we have in budget right now,” Young said. “Certainly for businesses, as to whether or not they want to invest in our economies — they don’t turn on a dime like President Trump’s mind does every morning when he wakes up. They actually have to plan for the future, they have to make smart investments, and this chaos doesn’t lead to effective planning and successful operation of businesses.”