BBC News, Toronto and London
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs in Canada, calling him a “very dumb thing to do” and promised to hold a “relentless struggle” to protect his economy.
Trudeau has accused the US president of placing a “complete collapse of the Canadian economy because it will facilitate our annexation.” “This will never happen. We will never be the 51st country,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Trump has imposed 25% tariffs for products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico and increased a tax on goods coming from China.
The Canadian Prime Minister has announced retaliatory rates for US exports and warned that the trade war would be expensive for both countries.
“This is a time to pull away strongly and demonstrate that the battle with Canada will have no winners,” Trudeau said.
He said that Canada's main goal remains to raise the rates so that they “do not last a second longer than necessary.”
Trump says he protects jobs in the US and production and tries to prevent illegal migration and drug trafficking. The US president says his goal is to adhere to the powerful opioid fentanyl and accuses other countries differently for the arrival of drugs in the United States.
Following the Trudo press conference, in a publication on Social Truth, Trump has doubled from his threat from further rates: “Please explain to Governor Trudeau of Canada that when he puts a retreat on the United States, our reciprocal tariff will immediately increase with the sum!”
In response to the allegations, Trudeau said on Tuesday that there is “no excuse” for the new tariffs, since less than 1% of fentanyl captured at the US border comes from Canada.
Trudeau's words were voiced by Mexican President Claudia Shainbaum, who said there was no “motive, no reason, no excuse” for Trump's movement. As he spoke on Tuesday, she also swore to publish her own Tariff and Netariff measures – but said additional details would be given on Sunday.
Experts say Trump's tariffs are likely to raise consumers' prices in the US and abroad.
The three directed countries are the best trading partners in America, and Tit-For-Tat measures also sparked fears of a wider trade war.
Tariffs are a tax on imports from other countries designed to protect against more expensive competition from elsewhere and to strengthen business and jobs at home.
The retreating measures in Canada include a 25% reciprocal tariff that will be imposed on C $ 155 billion ($ 107 billion; £ 84 billion) US goods:
- Tariff of C $ 30 billion will come into force immediately
- Tariffs for the remaining C $ 125 billion US products will come into force in 21 days
Canada Immigration Minister Mark Miller has warned that a million jobs in Canada are at risk if the tariffs are completed, given how much trade between the two countries is intertwined.
“We cannot replace an economy that is responsible for 80% of our trade overnight and will hurt,” he said on Monday.
Speaking to the AFP news agency, an employee of car production in the Canadian province of Ontario said people were really “quite scared” to be fired. “I just bought my first house,” said Joel Soleski. “I may need to look for a job elsewhere.”
The sector is the one that can be heavily affected by the new Tariff regime in North America. Parts of the vehicle can cross the US border several times during the production process and thus can be taxed repeatedly.
Ontario Doug Ford Prime Minister, whose province is home to the Canada car industry industry, in front of reporters on Tuesday, that it envisages the mounting plants to “close on both sides of the border” as a result of the tariffs.
The tariffs were called “reckless” by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, whose President Candace Laing warned that this move would force both Canada and the United States to “recession, job loss and economic disasters.”
La Laing warned that they would also increase prices for Americans and force US businesses to find alternative suppliers, which she said “are less reliable than Canadian.”
The Canadian provincial leaders promised their own answers.
Ford of Ontario discarded the possibility of interrupting Canadian supplies of electricity and exports of high quality nickel to the United States, as well as a 25% export tax for electricity sent to Michigan, New York and Minnesota power plants.
Canada exports enough electricity to feed about six million US homes.
Ontario and other provinces have also moved to remove alcohol from American alcohol from their shelves. In Nova Scotia, Prime Minister Tim Houston said his province would ban US companies from bidding provincial contracts as well as Will Ontario.
Ford has also announced that a $ 100 million contract ($ 68 million; £ 55.1) with Elon Musk satellite company will be canceled.
Meanwhile, China – now faced with 20%tariffs after Trump doubled a larger tax – swore to fight every trade war to the “bitter end”. He has announced his own measurement measures – including tariffs for a number of US agricultural and food products.