Toronto: Canada’s outgoing prime minister and the leader of the country’s oil-rich province of Alberta are both confident that Canada can avoid the 25 per cent tariff US President Donald Trump says he will impose February 1.
Justin Trudeau and Danielle Smith will argue that Canada is the energy superpower that has the oil and critical minerals that America needs to feed what Trump vows will be a “booming” US economy.
But Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, the manufacturing and automobile hub of Canada, said a trade war is 100 per cent coming.
Trump “declared an economic war on Canada”, Ford said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“And we are going to use every tool in our toolbox to defend our economy.”
Trudeau said Canada will retaliate if needed, but noted that Canada has been here before during the first Trump presidency when they successfully renegotiated the free trade deal.
Ford said as soon as Trump applies tariffs, he will instruct Ontario’s liquor control board to pull all American-made alcohol from the shelves.
“We are the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. And I’m going to encourage all the premiers to do the same,” Ford said, adding that there will be a dollar-for-dollar tariff retaliation on American goods entering Canada.
“We are going to target the Republican-held areas as well. They are going to feel the pain. Canadians are going to feel the pain, but Americans will feel the pain as well,” he said.
“A message to the countries around the world: if he wants to use Canada as an example, you are up next. He’s coming after you as well.”
Trump pledged in his inaugural address that tariffs would be coming in a speech in which he promised a golden era for America.
He later said Canada and Mexico could be hit with the tariffs as soon as February 1, though he signed an executive order requesting a report coordinated by the secretary of commerce by April 1.
Trump said Tuesday that the 25 per cent tariff that he intends to place on Canada and Mexico as soon as February 1 would have “nothing to do” with renegotiating the existing trade pact among the three countries.
For him, the tariffs are all about stopping unauthorised migration and the flow of illicit drugs.
The US president told reporters at the White House that, in his opinion, the amount of fentanyl coming through Canada and Mexico is “massive”.
US Customs agents seized just 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared to 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
About 60 per cent of US crude oil imports are from Canada. Despite Trump’s claim that the US doesn’t need Canada, nearly a quarter of the oil America consumes per day comes from Canada.
America’s northern neighbour also has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminium and uranium to the US.
Nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (USD 2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is also the top export destination for 36 US states.
“Trump wants to usher in a golden age for the US,” Trudeau said at a Cabinet retreat in Quebec called to deal with Trump’s threats.
“If the American economy is going to see the boom that Donald Trump is predicting, they are going to need more energy, more steel and aluminium, more critical minerals, more of the things that Canada sells to the United States every single day.”
Tuesday, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum stressed the need to keep “cool heads” and look at the wording of what Trump signed, rather than listen to the discourse surrounding it.
On the threat of tariffs, Sheinbaum took solace in that the “America First Trade Policy” order that Trump signed Monday talks about the free trade agreement signed with Mexico and Canada during Trump’s first term, which lays out clear processes for disputes.
She noted that a formal revision of the agreement is scheduled for July 2026.
Smith, the premier of Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta, said the April 1 deadline gives Canadians time to make case to the Trump administration that Canada should be exempted from tariffs.
Smith said, “With the energy emergency that they declared and with their desire for critical minerals Canada is the answer”.
AP
