Key points
- Trump’s tariffs are aimed at forcing the “collapse” of Canada’s economy: Trudeau
- Trump has spoken often of making Canada the 51st American state
- Canadian officials initially dismissed the remark as a joke
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump’s tariffs are aimed at forcing the “collapse” of Canada’s economy to make it “easier” for the United States to annex the nation, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
Justin Trudeau made these remarks during a fiery news conference about the start of a trade war between the countries.
According to Bloomberg, Trump put the tariffs in place on Tuesday, saying Canada and Mexico have not done enough to crack down on drug trafficking. But in Canada’s case, that’s just a pretext for tariffs the US president planned to impose anyway, Trudeau stated.
AFP cited Trudeau as saying the US president, who has spoken often of making Canada the 51st American state, “wants to see a collapse of the Canadian economy because that would make it easier to annex us.”
“Completely unjustified”
“The excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false,” Trudeau said. “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that’ll make it easier to annex us.”
Trump has repeatedly stated that Canada can avoid tariffs if it becomes the 51st US state. Canadian officials initially dismissed the remark as a joke, but it took on a more menacing tone in January when Trump pledged to use “economic force” to overtake the country, according to Bloomberg. Trudeau told a group of business leaders last month that he believes the threat is real.
Trump has said the measures are necessary to force Canadian action against what he describes as the flow of undocumented migrants and the drug fentanyl across the border, AFP reported.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs
“The United States launched a trade war against Canada,” Trudeau said. “Canadians are reasonable. We are polite. We will not back down from a fight.”
As part of its response to the US levies, Canada will initiate dispute cases at the World Trade Organization and through the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term, AFP cited Trudeau as saying.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs will remain in place until the US levies are withdrawn, he added.
“We don’t want this,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said that Canada would plaster retaliatory tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods in response to Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs, AP reported.
Addressing Americans directly and warning that a trade war with Canada would lead to economic pain in the United States, Trudeau said: “Your government has chosen to do this to you.”
