Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that Canada has struck back on US tariffs with CAN$155 billion (US$106 billion) in tariffs on American products entering Canada.
“Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the US trade actions, with 25% tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods,” Trudeau said at a news conference, following an hours-long meeting with Canada’s provincial premiers.
Trudeau said $30 billion on American goods will take effect Tuesday, the same day as US tariffs. Another $125 billion in goods will have tariffs enacted in a few days.
The list of targeted goods was not provided by the US, but in Canada, Trudeau said some American imports such as alcohol would be affected.
Trudeau said provincial premiers and the federal government are united in the trade war.
“We are united,” Trudeau said. “We will stand tall for Canada.”
But Trudeau said the American tariffs raised a perplexing question in what is now a trade war: Why US President Donald Trump would attack its closest neighbor and ally? Foreign Minister Melanie Joly could not understand it either.
“Canadians have been nothing but the strongest allies and the best neighbours to the United States,” Joly posted Saturday on X. “These tariffs are completely unjustifiable…Canada will not back down.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford went on CNN late Saturday and said Trump’s tariffs were “unjustified, unfair and frankly illegal” because they contravene free-trade deals with Canada, Mexico and the US.
Trudeau was asked about whether Canada still sees the US as an ally, but said only that Washington is a “friend” and “partner.”
Trump said he would put tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico unless the two countries tightened up the borders to cut down on drugs entering the US, as well as illegal immigrants. He also announced a 10% tariff on Chinese imports.
Trump was concerned primarily with the drug, fentanyl, entering from Canada, but Canadian government officials said the amount is minuscule compared to the drug coming into the US from Mexico. But an immediate plan by Canada to spend $1.4 billion to stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants was ignored by Trump.
The 25% tariff will apply to virtually all Canadian imports to the US and 10% on oil imports.
Earlier in the day, Ford said he thinks Trump’s motives for the crushing tariffs may well be in pursuit of an ultimate goal to make Canada a 51st state.
“He thinks he can break Canada,” Ford said, speaking from the border city of Windsor, Ontario. “He thinks he can buy Canada. He doesn’t know what we know, the Canadian spirit can never be broken and, friends, Canada is not for sale.”
British Columbia Premier Dave Eby said Canada needs to find new markets for its goods because of the unstable US government run by Trump.
“We will never again be beholden to the whims of one person in the White House,” Eby said after the war council meeting between Trudeau and Canadian premiers.
Experts and politicians alike said the tariffs, if they remain in effect, will devastate the Canadian economy and throw the country into a recession.
Prices of goods will rise in Canada, including at the grocery store. But prices of goods will increase for Americans, too.