United States President Donald Trump has escalated his confrontation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, hinting at rocky negotiations as Canada seeks to deescalate a rising commerce warfare.
On Wednesday, Trump turned to his social media platform Reality Social to offer his model of a noon telephone name he held with Trudeau.
“The decision led to a ‘considerably’ pleasant method,” Trump stated, with out providing specifics.
The Republican chief did, nonetheless, accuse Trudeau of doing too little to handle fentanyl trafficking, a problem consultants say is of minor concern alongside the Canadian border.
Trump additionally brazenly questioned Trudeau’s function in Canada’s upcoming federal election, trying to boost questions on his authorities’s legitimacy, as he has with different world leaders.
Stress over tariffs
The high-level negotiations come someday after Trump imposed 25-percent tariffs on merchandise from each Canada and Mexico, the US’s two largest buying and selling companions, to not point out its neighbours.
These excessive tariffs had been looming over the 2 international locations for a while.
Shortly after successful the presidency in November, Trump announced he deliberate to leverage the 25-percent tariffs to pressure Canada and Mexico to tighten their borders.
He additionally talked about that Canada may keep away from such staggering tariffs by ceding its sovereignty and changing into the 51st state within the US.
After taking workplace on January 20, Trump set a date in early February for the tariffs to take impact. However each Canada and Mexico supplied compromises that allowed for the tariffs to be delayed, to be able to keep away from the anticipated harms to their economies.
For Mexico, that meant sending 10,000 Nationwide Guard troops to its border with the US. For Canada, the compromise took the type of a slate of measures together with the creation of a “fentanyl tsar” and a job pressure to crack down on drug trafficking.
However the delay expired on Tuesday, and the US tariffs have since come into pressure.
Canada and Mexico instantly responded with their very own retaliatory tariffs, marking the opening salvoes of the nascent commerce warfare.
“Canadians are cheap, and we’re well mannered. However we is not going to again down from a struggle. Not when our nation and the wellbeing of everybody in it’s at stake,” Trudeau stated on Tuesday.
He warned all three international locations’ economies could be harmed by a commerce standoff.
Already, the steep import duties have rattled a number of industries, and the “huge three” US automakers – Ford, Stellantis and Common Motors – efficiently petitioned Trump for a one-month exemption from the tariffs on Wednesday.
Canada, in the meantime, has sought to barter an finish to the commerce warfare with the Trump administration, whereas submitting a grievance over the steep tariffs with the World Commerce Group.
It has argued that the tariffs violate a free-trade agreement struck throughout Trump’s first time period, the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA).
Give attention to fentanyl
In his Reality Social post on Wednesday, Trump highlighted the illicit drug fentanyl because the sticking level within the tariff negotiations.
“Justin Trudeau, of Canada, referred to as me to ask what might be achieved about Tariffs. I informed him that many individuals have died from Fentanyl that got here by way of the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has satisfied me that it has stopped,” Trump wrote.
“He stated that it’s gotten higher, however I stated, ‘That’s not adequate.’”
However consultants have questioned whether or not the give attention to fentanyl on the Canadian border is misplaced, given the comparatively minuscule quantities crossing into the US from the north.
Canada itself has referred to as the tariffs “unjustified“. It has identified that the US authorities’s personal statistics point out the quantity of fentanyl seized alongside the international locations’ shared border is lower than 1 p.c.
In line with the web site for the US Customs and Border Safety, solely about 19.5 kilogrammes (43 kilos) had been confiscated on the nation’s northern border for the fiscal 12 months 2024.
That’s out of a complete of greater than 9,934kg (21,900 kilos) seized coming into the US that 12 months.
Nonetheless, on Wednesday, Trump blamed Trudeau for “Weak Border Insurance policies” which are “accountable for the dying of many individuals”.
And his administration was on the defensive towards accusations that it was inventing an issue to be able to justify its tariffs.
At a information briefing on Wednesday, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at a reporter who questioned Trump’s motives and famous the quantity of fentanyl arriving from Canada may match right into a “carry-on suitcase”.
“ You’re asking me for what the president’s justification is for these tariffs. It’s lower than you. You’re not the president,” Leavitt replied. “Frankly, I feel it’s a little bit bit disrespectful to the households on this nation who’ve misplaced family members by the hands of this lethal poison.”
Questioning Canada’s elections
Talking to the CBC tv present The Nationwide on Tuesday, Canada’s Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc stated his authorities had been working to keep away from the tariffs and that he has been engaged in dialogue along with his US counterpart, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
However LeBlanc emphasised that no compromise could be accepted besides the whole repeal of the tariffs. He referred to as on the US to “return to respecting the free commerce settlement”.
“We’re not fascinated by some kind of discount of the tariffs,” LeBlanc stated. “We wish the free commerce settlement with the US and Mexico revered, and we’ll proceed to work with the federal government of the US on points as soon as the tariffs are lifted.”
“This isn’t assembly anyone kind of midway or lowering the tariffs,” he added. “We wish to guarantee Canadian items and companies can enter the US freed from tariffs.”
However Trump himself has used the tariffs as a mechanism to stress the Canadian authorities to cede its sovereignty and be part of the US.
Trump has expressed a number of instances throughout his second time period an expansionist want to develop US territory overseas, together with by “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, one thing he reiterated in a joint speech to the US Congress on Tuesday.
Once more on Wednesday, Trump referred to Trudeau as a “governor”, a title used for leaders of US states.
He additionally tried to spur questions in regards to the legitimacy of Trudeau’s energy, by writing in conspiratorial phrases about Canada’s upcoming federal elections.
“He was unable to inform me when the Canadian Election is going down, which made me curious,” Trump wrote of Trudeau. “Like, what’s happening right here? I then realized he’s attempting to make use of this problem to remain in energy. Good luck Justin!”
Trump has a historical past of questioning different leaders’ legitimacy. In February, he referred to as one other elected official, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, a “dictator” for failing to carry wartime elections. Ukraine is at the moment keeping off a full-scale invasion from Russia.
Trump’s efforts to undermine Trudeau, nonetheless, could have spurred the other impact.
After years of trailing Canada’s Conservative Occasion within the polls, Trudeau’s Liberal Occasion has seen a resurgence in popularity – one thing consultants have credited, partially, to a backlash towards Trump.
Trudeau is ready to step down as Liberal Occasion chief on March 9, with the election of his alternative.
Canada should maintain a federal election no later than October 20, although the Liberal Occasion could provoke a vote earlier than then.
