Trump insists on 25% tariffs on Canada as British PM declines to stand up for Canada

The tariff threat tightrope drew tauter Thursday, while Britain, an erstwhile ally, threw Canada under the bus in its own rush to avoid Trump’s tariffs.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his threat to slap all-encompassing tariffs on Canada next week, in a social media post and publicly as he met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. During the meeting, Starmer declined to stand up for Canada.

 

The British prime minister, asked during a joint news conference if he’d raised Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada, or if King Charles had expressed any concern about them, said he was focused on negotiating new economic and security deals with Trump, and turned aside any concerns about Canada.

 

“You mentioned Canada, I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist. We’re the closest of nations,” Starmer bristled.

 

Trump said Starmer had worked “very hard” to avoid tariffs on Britain, but the president offered him no reassurances, saying only they might reach a good trade deal.

Trump has threatened “reciprocal tariffs” against all global imports. But he’s reserved particularly punitive treatment for Canada and Mexico, and despite signals Wednesday from his officials that Trump was still open to negotiation, Trump said Thursday he had seen no progress at the northern border.

 

“I don’t see it at all. No, not on drugs,” Trump said when asked specifically about Canada’s border actions. A few minutes later, Trump appeared to misunderstand America’s own border statistics on fentanyl seizures, saying Canada “should be apprehending much more, they’re only apprehending one per cent.”

 

Trump then said the stronger Mexico gets on border enforcement, the more “it goes up to Canada, and a lot of drugs are coming in through Canada.”

 

He rejected an assertion that U.S. tariffs would paid by American importers and consumers, telling a reporter, “They’re not, no, I think they’re paid for by the country.”

 

Just 30 minutes earlier, in Montreal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is “working day and night” to avoid Tuesday’s tariffs, and repeated that Canada is not a significant problem for the U.S.

 

“The reality is, and I’ve been saying it for months now, less than one per cent of any fentanyl entering the United States comes through Canada,” said Trudeau. “And one per cent of the irregular migrants that arrive in the United States come through Canada.”

 

Trudeau said nevertheless Canada will continue to reduce the flow of fentanyl even more because even small quantities can be deadly, but if Trump acts Ottawa will impose counter-tariffs on the U.S. “If, on Tuesday, there are unjustified tariffs brought in on Canada, we will have an immediate and extremely strong response as Canadians expect.”

 

Ottawa earlier this month identified countermeasures that could target $155 billion worth of American imports if Trump follows through on his threat.

 

Trudeau also pushed back against more talk of the U.S. making Canada a 51st state. “No way,” he said in French.

 

Public Safety Minister David McGuinty, flanked by newly appointed “fentanyl czar” Kevin Brosseau and the heads of the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency, told reporters in Washington that American officials told them Canada is making “enormous progress” at the border, and it “should satisfy the American administration.”

 

“The evidence is irrefutable,” said McGuinty, but he acknowledged Canada can only “control what we can control.”

 

Earlier Thursday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that, “Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels … until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled. China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date. The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect.”

 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said a day earlier that Canada and Mexico have to “prove to the president they’ve done an excellent job” on tightening their borders in order for Trump to hold off on the threatened 25 per cent tariff with a 10 per cent duty on oil and gas, which were delayed for 30 days until next week.

 

Meanwhile, Trudeau criticized NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who has called Trump a “fascist” who should be banned from the G7 summit Canada will host in June in Alberta, saying it was easy to say “shocking” things, but “I’m not one of those Canadian politicians that thinks that’s a responsible way to lead a country or even carry an important political dialogue.”

 

Trump’s threats have prompted all Liberal leadership candidates to declare the U.S. is no longer an ally of Canada’s, with the presumptive front-runner Mark Carney saying Canada faces “a serious crisis, not just an economic crisis. It’s a crisis of sovereignty.” Carney said Tuesday there is an urgent need to protect the Arctic “which is under threat not just now from the Russians and the Chinese, but from potential U.S. incursions.”

Conservative MP Randy Hoback in a statement Thursday said “no rational leader can squarely assure their people that, ‘We can trust the United States government,’” and said Canadians have realized the United States “was not the partner we believed them to be.”

 

He suggested a suite of policy changes — which Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has not presented — to “pivot” away from the U.S., such as more government supports for businesses seeking to export or finance new startups, and expedited visas for American researchers who’ve lost jobs and funding because of Trump’s and Elon Musk’s “slash-and-burn chaos that is DOGE.”

 

Trump has threatened several rounds of tariffs, with different objectives and different deadlines.

 

Those are:

1) A 25 per cent “across the board” tariff on all Canadian and Mexican imports, with a 10 per cent tariff on oil and gas, possibly to take effect Mar. 4.

2) A 25 per cent tariff on global steel and aluminum imports, including Canadian products, to take effect Mar. 12.

3) A 25 per cent tariff on global auto imports, including from Canada, to take effect April 2.

4) Unspecified “reciprocal tariffs” against all countries that sell goods to America, to take effect April 2.

5) Unspecified tariff to come on copper, dependent on a review due in nine
months.

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star