U.S. President Donald Trump said he spoke Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a day before the start of new tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he and Trudeau would talk again at mid-afternoon, while pushing his argument that the new tariff was aimed at forcing Canada to do more to curb the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States.
“Canada doesn’t even allow U.S. Banks to open or do business there. What’s that all about?” Trump said in his social media posting. “Many such things, but it’s also a DRUG WAR, and hundreds of thousands of people have died in the U.S. from drugs pouring through the Borders of Mexico and Canada.”
Earlier, Trump said he also plans to talk Monday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Two weeks into his second term as the U.S. leader, Trump hit Mexico and Canada with new 25% tariffs over the weekend and a 10% levy on Chinese exports, with the higher taxes on imports to the U.S. set to take effect at midnight Tuesday.
Trump acknowledged that the new tariffs on the three biggest U.S. trading partners could hit inflation-weary Americans with higher prices for groceries, gasoline, cars and other consumer goods, but said the higher tariffs would be “worth the price” to bolster U.S. interests.
It was not immediately known whether Trump was reconsidering imposition of the tariffs. Both Trudeau and Sheinbaum have attacked Trump’s action as unwarranted and vowed to retaliate, while China said it would file a protest with the World Trade Organization.
The leader of Canada’s most populous province of Ontario said Monday he’s ending a contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet services in response to Trump’s new tariff on Canada. Musk, possibly the world’s richest man, is a key Trump adviser seeking to sharply cut U.S. government spending.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who said he is also banning American companies from provincial contracts, signed a $68 million deal with Musk’s company in November to deliver high-speed internet to remote residents in rural and northern Ontario.
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford said in a post on X.
Trump justified the new tariffs by claiming the three countries were not doing enough to halt undocumented migrants and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.
U.S. consumers could face higher prices because companies that pay the tariffs to the federal government to import goods from other countries then often pass on at least part, if not all, of their higher costs to consumers, rather than absorb their extra expenses themselves.
In social media postings Sunday, Trump aimed most of his comments at Canada, targeting one of the closest U.S. allies. The U.S. Census Bureau said the U.S. had a $55 billion trade deficit with Canada last year.
“Why? There is no reason,” Trump contended. “We don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited Energy, should make our own Cars, and have more Lumber than we can ever use.”
“Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!” Trump said.
He said, “Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER!”
With the new tariffs, Trump said, “Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!) But we will Make America Great Again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid.”
Trump aides had previously shied from acknowledging that tariffs could raise U.S. consumer prices. Nationwide polls in the U.S. showed that consumer frustration over rising prices during the last four years were a major factor in his November election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump has since acknowledged that it will not be easy to curb higher grocery prices. Trump put the new tariff on energy imports from Canada at 10%, apparently seeking to limit an increase in fuel and electricity prices.
Trudeau said Saturday that his country would hit back with 25% percent levies of its own on select American goods worth $106.6 billion, with a first round on Tuesday followed by a second one in three weeks.
Leaders of several Canadian provinces have already announced retaliatory actions as well, such as the immediate halt of U.S. liquor purchases, and more specifically, orange juice produced in the U.S. state of Florida, whiskey in Tennessee and peanut butter in Kentucky, three states Trump won in last November’s election and all represented by Republicans, like Trump, in the U.S. Senate.
Kirsten Hillman, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., told ABC’s “This Week” show on Sunday, “We’re really disappointed” and “perplexed” by Trump’s actions and said she hoped that Trump would back off before Tuesday. But she acknowledged that “it’s really in the president’s hands” whether that happens.
Hillman said that “less than 1% of illegal immigrants” entering the U.S. travel across its northern border with Canada. She said Canada has invested “in a lot of equipment” to curb unauthorized border crossings and conducted joint exercises with the U.S. to catch migrants.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s Sheinbaum said she had directed her economy minister to “implement Plan B,” which includes yet-unspecified “tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests,” without specifying what U.S. goods her government will target.
U.S. exports to Mexico totaled more than $322 billion in 2023, Census Bureau data showed, while the U.S. imported more than $475 billion worth of Mexican products.
Sheinbaum assailed Trump’s contention that her government had joined forces with drug cartels, a claim he made in announcing the tariff increases.
China denounced the new tariffs on its exports, with Beijing saying it would challenge them at the World Trade Organization and take unspecified “countermeasures.” The U.S. had a $279 billion trade deficit with China in 2023, the largest figure for any of its trading partners.
China’s response stopped short of the immediate escalation that had marked China’s trade showdown with Trump during his first term as president.
China’s commerce ministry said in a statement that Trump’s move “seriously violates” international trade rules, urging the U.S. to “engage in frank dialogue and strengthen cooperation.”
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.
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