Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s agreed to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts after Donald Trump threatened to impose hefty tariffs on Canadian goods.
The U.S. president-elect said Monday night that on his first day back in the White House, he would impose a 25 per cent tax on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, Trudeau said he plans to meet with Canada’s premiers “this week” to discuss how to approach the Canada-U.S. relationship.
“This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do,” Trudeau said before heading into a meeting with his cabinet.
“One of the really important things is that we be all pulling together on this. The Team Canada approach is what works.”
A spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office later said a virtual meeting will be held Wednesday evening.
The premiers had written to Trudeau on Monday prior to the latest tariff threat, asking for an urgent meeting to discuss Ottawa’s approach to the incoming administration.
“As we look to welcome the incoming U.S. administration, it is important that we act now to work together and seize this opportunity to grow and strengthen our historic partnership with the U.S.,” the premiers’ letter reads.
After U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had a call with Trump where he laid out the ‘facts’ about the Canada-U.S. relationship. Trudeau also said he reached out to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and that there will be a meeting of first ministers this week.
Trump said the 25 per cent tariff was due to his concerns about the borders with both Canada and Mexico.
“This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
Trudeau spoke with Trump on the phone on Monday evening after the president-elect made his tariff promise. The prime minister said Tuesday morning that the two had a “good call.”
“We obviously talked about… how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth, we talked about some of the challenges we can work on together,” Trudeau told reporters.
The two leaders talked for about 10 minutes on Monday evening and primarily discussed trade and border security, according to a government source with knowledge of the phone call. Trudeau pointed out that the number of migrants who cross from Canada to the U.S. is a tiny fraction of those who cross from Mexico, the source said.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico until both countries stop what he called the ‘invasion’ of undocumented migrants and drugs crossing the U.S. border.
Trudeau also spoke to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier François Legault on Monday evening.
Ford said Tuesday morning that he was “shocked” by Trump’s declaration and that it was “insulting” that he compared Canada to Mexico.
“We’re the closest allies the Americans have,” Ford told reporters during a press conference.
“You ask any American… if they feel Canada is a threat. The answer is no. Can we do a better job? Do we need to do a better job on our borders? One thousand per cent.”
Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske says she is extremely concerned about the incoming U.S. administration’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs, asking, ‘Can anyone of us really know what is going on in [Donald Trump’s] mind?’ Bruske is urging Justin Trudeau and premiers to keep the impact on workers front and centre when they meet this week to discuss a response.
The Ontario premier said he wants to hear from Trudeau to ensure he has a “strong plan to protect and secure our borders and make sure we address the threat from the U.S.”
Ford said he expects Canada to retaliate with its own tariffs if Trump follows through on his promise.
Forecasters have been attempting to predict how a second Trump term will impact Canada’s economy. Various projections have pegged the potential damage to Canada at anywhere from less than a half-point of GDP to a devastating five per cent.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the federal government has been preparing for a Trump presidency for some time.
“We have to take [the tariff threat] seriously, there’s no doubt. On the other hand, I would say the preparation that we’ve done will be material in our discussions,” he told reporters Tuesday morning.
“Trump is not president for two months, so we still have a number of weeks to engage.”