TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advised Donald Trump that Americans would additionally undergo if the president-elect went forward with a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian merchandise, a Canadian minister who attended their latest dinner mentioned Monday.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on merchandise from Canada and Mexico if they don’t cease what he referred to as the circulation of medicine and migrants throughout their borders into the United States. Last week he mentioned on social media that he would impose a 25% tax on all merchandise getting into the United States from Canada and Mexico as certainly one of his first govt orders.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose duties embrace border safety, attended a dinner with Trump and Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership on Friday.
Trudeau requested the assembly in an effort to keep away from tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing just like the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“The prime minister clearly talked concerning the significance of defending the Canadian economic system and Canadian employees from tariffs, however we additionally mentioned with our American associates the detrimental influence that these tariffs may have on their economic system, on affordability even in United States,” LeBlanc mentioned in Parliament.
If Trump maintains threat to impose 25% tariffs. on every thing imported from Mexico and Canada, the worth will increase that might observe will conflict with the marketing campaign promise of giving American households a break from inflation.
Economists argue that firms would don’t have any selection however to go on the extra prices, dramatically elevating the costs of meals, clothes, vehicles, alcohol and different items.
The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington commerce group, mentioned final week that tariffs will increase costs of contemporary vegatables and fruits and damage U.S. farmers when nations retaliate.
Canada is already taking a look at attainable retaliatory tariffs on some objects from the United States ought to Trump observe by on the risk.
After dinner with Trump, Trudeau returned residence with no assure that the president-elect will again away from threatened tariffs on all merchandise of America’s largest buying and selling associate. Trump referred to as the talks “productive” however signaled no retreat from the dedication that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico on the subject of the circulation of medicine and migrants into the United States.
“The concept that we got here away empty-handed is totally false,” LeBlanc mentioned. “We had a really productive dialogue with Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. … Trump’s dedication to proceed working with us has been something however empty-handed.”
Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner have been Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Trump’s choose to steer the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choose as his advisor for nationwide safety.
Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, advised The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so vastly completely different from the Mexican border has actually been understood.” Hillman, who sat on the desk subsequent to Trudeau and Trump, mentioned Canada shouldn’t be the issue on the subject of medicine and migrants.
Mexico’s president rejected these feedback on Monday.
“Mexico should be revered, particularly by its buying and selling companions,” mentioned President Claudia Sheinbaum. He mentioned Canada has its personal issues with fentanyl use and “may solely want it had the cultural richness of Mexico.”
Migrant flows and drug seizures on the border of the 2 nations are very completely different. U.S. Customs brokers seized 43 kilos of fentanyl on the Canadian border over the past fiscal yr, in comparison with 21,100 kilos on the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl that comes into the United States — the place it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is produced by Mexican drug cartels utilizing precursor chemical substances smuggled from Asia.
On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants on the southwestern border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares with 23,721 encounters on the Canadian border throughout that interval.
Canada is the highest export vacation spot for 36 US states. Nearly C$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) value of products and companies cross the border every single day. About 60% of US crude oil imports come from Canada, as do 85% of US electrical energy imports.
Canada can also be the most important international provider of metal, aluminum and uranium to the United States and possesses 34 crucial minerals and metals that the Pentagon covets and invests in for nationwide safety.
