Canada’s Trudeau urges U.S. consumers to consider the harm of Trump’s tariff threats

Outgoing Canadian PM Trudeau addresses Trump's tariff threats, emphasizing potential harm to U.S. consumers and trade relationship with Canada.

Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday (January 12, 2025) suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks about Canada becoming America’s “51st state” has distracted attention from the harm that steep tariffs would inflict on U.S. consumers.

Mr. Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports.

“The 51st state, that’s not going to happen,” Mr. Trudeau said in an interview with MSNBC. “But people are talking about that, as opposed to talking about what impact 25% tariffs (has) on steel and aluminum coming into the United States.”

Mr. Trudeau told MSNBC: “No American wants to pay 25% more for electricity or oil and gas coming in from Canada. That’s something I think people need to pay a little more attention to.”

Mr. Trump has also said that if Canada merged with the U.S., taxes would decrease and there would be no tariffs.

“I know that as a successful negotiator he likes to keep people off balance,” Mr. Trudeau said of Mr. Trump’s threats to use economic force to turn Canada into the 51st state. Mr. Trump has also erroneously cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canada — a natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like oil — as a subsidy.

Canadian officials say that if Mr. Trump follows through with his threat of punishing tariffs, Canada would consider slapping retaliatory tariffs on American orange juice, toilets and some steel products. Already during Mr. Trump’s first term in the White House, Canada responded to Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum with its own on American products like bourbon, Harley Davidson motorcycles and playing cards.