Canada has responded to new US tariffs with retaliatory ones on imports, warning of an “existential threat” from its neighbour, BBC reports.
US President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on goods imported into the US from Canada and Mexico, which took effect overnight, and raised tariffs on goods imported from China.
Canada responded with tariffs on tens of billions of dollars worth of goods imported from the US. The country’s provincial leaders suggested going further.
In addition to the 25 per cent tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, Trump is also imposing a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy products.
Trump’s team characterises the tariffs as a key negotiating tool. The US president wants to crack down on the powerful opioid fentanyl and has repeatedly blamed other countries for the drug’s appearance in the US.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that the new US tariffs “have no basis in fact” because less than 1 per cent of the fentanyl intercepted at the US border came from Canada.
Trudeau also noted that his country took steps to further restrict the flow of the drug during the month that Trump’s new tariffs were suspended.
Tariffs as “existential threat”
Earlier on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly told reporters that Trump’s tariffs posed an “existential threat to us” as thousands of jobs were at risk.
Speaking to the AFP news agency, a car manufacturing employee in the Canadian province of Ontario said people were indeed “pretty scared” of being laid off. “I just bought my first house,” Joel Soleski said. “I might have to look for work elsewhere.”
The car industry is one of those that could be greatly affected by North America’s new tariff regime. Car parts can cross the US-Canada border several times during the manufacturing process, which means taxes can be levied more than once.
Canadian provincial leaders have promised their own responses. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said that Canadian electricity supplies and exports of high-grade nickel to the US could be cut off.
Canada exports enough electricity to power about six million American homes.
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do anything, including cutting off their energy, with a smile on my face,” Ford told NBC on Monday.
