Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeausaid the country is prepared to respond in a “purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate” manner should President Donald Trump go through with a threatened 25% tariff on Canadian imports on Saturday.
Tariffs are “not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act,” he said on Friday.
Trudeau made the remarks at a meeting of the Council on Canada-U.S. Relations in Toronto, where he acknowledged the country “could be facing difficult times in the coming days and weeks.”
“I know Canadians might be anxious and worried,” he added, “but I want them to know the federal government — and indeed, all orders of government — have their backs.”
Trudeau formed the 18-member council earlier this month for the explicit purpose of dealing with Trump’s economic threats, stating at the time that import tariffs will “first and foremost hurt American citizens and American consumers.”
Indeed, a trade war with Canada could easily backfire, a recent TD Bank study suggests. America exports more products to Canada than any other country and, were it not for American energy imports from Canada, the U.S. would actually have a $45 billion trade surplus with its northern neighbor.
Canada also supplies a decent chunk of America’s rare earth minerals — the kind Trump apparently wants to invade Greenland for.
Trump said at a press conference Thursday he believes tariffs are necessary to curtail immigration, cut down on “the drugs, fentanyl and everything else,” and decrease American trade deficits, which he appears to believe are “massive subsidies.”
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday that Trump fully intends to go ahead with the action and that 25% import tariffs will be implemented on Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1, in addition to a 10% tariff on China.
The pledge was muddied, however, by an earlier Reuters report that Trump might postpone them until March 1 and allow carveouts for some imports.