US President Donald Trump has warned Canada that he will escalate his trade war after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
Trump’s 25-percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect on Tuesday, prompting Trudeau to announce retaliatory tariffs on more than $100bn of American goods that will take effect over 21 days.
The US president responded on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, saying: “Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the US, our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!”
Trump has repeatedly referred to the Canadian prime minister as the “governor” of Canada in recent weeks as he called for the country to become the US’s 51st state.
Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that Trump’s “dumb” trade war was motivated by a desire “to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that’ll make it easier to annex us”.
“Now, first of all, that’s never going to happen,” said the Canadian leader. “But yeah, he can do damage to the Canadian economy … but he is rapidly going to find out, as American families are going to find out, that that’s going to hurt people on both sides of the border.”
Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, told Al Jazeera that the trade war would “hurt consumers and businesses and the economy in Canada and the US” within “a few weeks”.
Canada said it will challenge the US measures at the World Trade Organization and through the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
“Canadians are reasonable and we are polite, but we will not back down from a fight,” said Trudeau, who will step down as prime minister after the governing Liberal Party chooses a new leader on Sunday.
Ontario premier Doug Ford said he would issue a 25-percent export tax on electricity sold to the US and may later cut it off completely if the US tariffs persist. In 2023, Ontario powered 1.5 million homes in Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
