‘Fortress North America’: Joly says Canada open to discussing U.S. proposal to match tariffs on China
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Friday Ottawa is willing to discuss a new request from Washington that Canada match any U.S. tariffs imposed on China to create what U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is calling “fortress North America.”
Mr. Bessent said earlier that day that Mexico has proposed matching U.S. tariffs on China in a move that he described as “very interesting” and one that Canada should copy.
Top Mexican officials have met with members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet this week for trade talks ahead of a March 4 deadline, when Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports are set to take effect alongside an additional 10-per-cent duty on Chinese imports.
Canada is currently making its own last-ditch efforts to avert the U.S. tariffs with a suite of Canadian cabinet ministers meeting key Trump administration officials to plead Ottawa’s case. Public Safety Minister David McGuinty wrapped up a three-day meeting in Washington Friday.
Asked about Mr. Bessent’s proposal, Ms. Joly said Canada is open to the idea.
“When it comes to the U.S. and their own concerns, we’re able to have conversations, we’re very open to have also trade-related conversations, including when it comes to China,” she told reporters during a visit to the Port of Vancouver.
“So, I’m convinced that I will be able to have these conversations with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and also the Minister of Finance Dominic LeBlanc will talk to Scott Bessent about it.”
The proposal came from Mexican government efforts to dissuade Mr. Trump from proceeding with his tariffs. This would amount to 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, although the levy on Canadian energy and critical minerals would be 10 per cent.
Washington has embraced the idea.
“I think it would be a nice gesture if the Canadians did it also so in a way we could have fortress North America from the flood of Chinese imports that’s coming out of the most unbalanced economy in the history of modern times,” Mr. Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the idea, has reported that the proposed tariffs by Mexico on China would focus on cars and auto parts.
Mr. Trump said Thursday that he still plans to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, alleging drugs are “still pouring into” the United States from both countries.
Mr. Trump had paused the threatened tariffs on Feb. 3 for 30 days after Canada and Mexico pledged new measures to strengthen surveillance of their shared borders with the U.S. as well as more efforts to fight the illegal production and distribution of the opioid fentanyl. He also said the delay would allow time to reach a “final economic deal.”
The Canadian government has been announcing drug busts and crackdown efforts on fentanyl and other drugs all week. On Friday, Ottawa unveiled new restrictions on three precursor chemicals used in illegal production of fentanyl: phenethyl bromide, propionic anhydride and benzyl chloride.
“These actions strengthen our existing robust controls on substances linked to the illegal drug market and help ensure law and border enforcement have the tools they need to combat fentanyl production and stop precursor chemicals before they can be used to manufacture toxic drugs sold on our streets,” the Department of Health said in a statement.
Before the ministerial push began this week, a group of Canada’s top diplomats and Deputy Minister of Public Safety Tricia Geddes received advice from two organized crime experts with extensive ties to the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration on how to crack down on the illicit fentanyl trade.
David Asher, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank, who has advised the U.S. DEA for more than two decades, and Ray Donovan, that agency’s former chief of operations, said they had a productive briefing Monday with Canadian diplomats who were in Washington for their annual conference at Canada’s embassy. The pair outlined a range of solutions to Canada’s ambassadors to Mexico and the U.S., as well as Canada’s consuls general from across U.S. states. A day later, the pair said, they had an informal meeting with Ms. Geddes.
They said they were impressed with Ottawa’s commitment to working with American partners on this front.
The pair’s message to the Canadians was that “a strong offence is a good defence” and they offered them a playbook for improving enforcement against the bustling trade in deadly synthetic drugs and the money laundering that accompanies it.
Public Safety Canada did not comment on these meetings.
In recent weeks, Ottawa has committed $1.3-billion to a border plan aimed at preventing fentanyl trafficking, including scrambling Black Hawk helicopters and drones, and deploying more front-line personnel and canine teams on the ground.
Mr. Asher said he advised the Canadians that the country should strike a joint task force with the U.S. to disrupt the operations of the Mexican cartels across the continent.
“I don’t think that a bunch of helicopters and dogs is actually enough,” he said in an interview Thursday.
Mr. Donovan, who played a key role in the arrest of Joaquín Guzmán Loera (El Chapo), the cartel boss who ran his Canadian operations from Vancouver, said he also urged Canadian officials this week is to send intelligence analysts and law enforcement agents to Mexico to “establish a footprint.” There, he said, those agents could work with American and Mexican partners to disrupt the export of illicit drugs into Canada by the cartels.
With a report from Reuters
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
