Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian officials are “directly and strategically” engaging with U.S. counterparts to avoid three series of tariffs, which could stack on top of each other.
When speaking to reporters in Brussels on Feb. 12, Trudeau said Canada is facing “three different tariff threats.” He said the first is the original threat of 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian imports and 10 percent on oil and gas, which was set to take effect on Feb. 4.
On Feb. 3, U.S. President Donald Trump and Trudeau worked out a last-minute agreement to pause the tariffs until March 4 while the two countries work out what Trump called a “final economic deal.” Trudeau had promised additional border security measures to stop fentanyl and illegal immigration from crossing the border, such as the appointment of a “fentanyl czar” and the listing of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
Trudeau told reporters on Feb. 12 that though just 1 percent of the fentanyl crossing into the United States comes from Canada, “we have a lot of work to do to show [the United States] that even if this is a very small problem, we are reducing it even further.”
Trudeau said the second tariff threat is the recently announced 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which apply to all countries. The prime minister said Ottawa has been pointing out the “significant job losses” that occurred in the United States when 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent on aluminum were implemented in 2018 during Trump’s first term in office.
The final tariff threat Trudeau mentioned, which could be imposed in April, would come after the United States Trade Representative and Commerce Department complete their study into how the United States could use tariffs to reduce its trade deficits with other countries, or address unfair trade practices.
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“We are speaking directly and strategically to our partners in the U.S. administration to point out the extent to which those three series of tariffs will hurt American jobs, will hurt American people, and, of course, will hurt Canadians at a time when we should be working together,” Trudeau said.
In addition to the three tariffs mentioned by Trudeau, Trump has also said a Canadian car tariff is a possibility. During a Feb. 10 interview with Fox News, Trump said Canada “stole” the U.S. car industry and suggested a potential 50 to 100 percent tariff on the industry.
Exchange With US Vice President
During the press conference, Trudeau was also asked about an exchange he recently had with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at an artificial intelligence (AI) summit in Paris. He said it was a “quick greeting exchange” where Trudeau highlighted how $2.2 billion worth of steel and aluminum from Canada go to Vance’s home state of Ohio.
“He nodded and noted it, but it wasn’t a longer exchange than that,” Trudeau said.
When asked how Canada would respond to American tariffs on steel and aluminum potentially reaching as high as 50 percent, Trudeau said the country would respond “as appropriate in a calibrated but extremely strong way.”
Trudeau said Canada has been working together with the United States on issues like international trade challenges, including competition from non-market or “rising authoritarian economies,” which involves collaboration on energy, AI, and critical minerals.
“This is our focus. If we have to take some time to put that on pause while we stand up for Canadian jobs, while we stand up unequivocally for Canadian sovereignty, we’ll do that,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister also said that any conversations about Canada becoming the 51st state are a “non-starter” and “never going to happen,” but that the country still needs to take Trump’s comments on that seriously. Trump has repeatedly said Canada would be better off if it were absorbed into the United States, and told reporters on Feb. 9 that Canada would not be “viable as a country” if the United States stopped trading with it.
All 13 of Canada’s premiers are in Washington, D.C., this week to push for a reprieve from the U.S. tariffs. Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc is also in the U.S. capital meeting with Trump’s pick for U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and economic adviser Kevin Hassett.
