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Canada's Trudeau urges US consumers to consider the harm of Trump's tariff threats

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Canada's Trudeau urges US consumers to consider the harm of Trump's tariff threats
News

News

Canada's Trudeau urges US consumers to consider the harm of Trump's tariff threats

2025-01-13 08:16 Last Updated At:08:40

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canada's outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday 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.

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

“The 51st state, that’s not going to happen," 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."

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.”

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," Trudeau said of Trump's threats to use economic force to turn Canada into the 51st state. 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 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 Trump's first term in the White House, Canada responded to Trump's tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum with its own on American products like bourbon, Harley Davidson motorcycles and playing cards.

“He got elected to try and make life easier for all Americans, to support American workers,” Trudeau said of Trump. “These (tariffs) are things that are going to hurt them.”

Trump said last week that the U.S doesn’t need oil, or anything else, from Canada. But almost a quarter of the oil that the U.S. consumes each day comes from Canada. The energy-rich western province of Alberta exports 4.3 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S.

Data from the United States Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels a day, and produces about 13.2 million barrels a day.

Canada, a founding partner of NATO and home to more than 40 million people, is also the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

Trump has said that he would reconsider his tariff threat if Canada made improvements in managing security at the Canada-U.S. border, which he and his advisers see as a potential entry point for undocumented migrants.

Trudeau has said that less than 1% of illegal immigrants and fentanyl cross into the U.S. from Canada.

But after a meeting last November with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s private club and residence in Florida, Trudeau announced an increase in spending on border security, expressing willingness to address Trump's concerns in hopes that he would reconsider his tariff threat.

With the challenge of Trump’s second administration looming and Trudeau's party trailing badly in the polls, the beleaguered Canadian prime minister announced his resignation last Monday. He will be replaced on March 9, when his Liberal party is set to pick a new leader.

FILE - President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pose for a photo as Trudeau arrives at the White House in Washington, on Oct. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pose for a photo as Trudeau arrives at the White House in Washington, on Oct. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

MUNICH (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday shot back strongly in defense of his stance against the far-right and said his country won’t accept people who “intervene in our democracy,” a day after U.S. Vice President JD Vance scolded European leaders over their approach to democracy.

The German leader spoke with just eight days before crucial elections in Germany, with polls showing the far-right Alternative for Germany party currently in second.

Vance said Friday at the Munich Security Conference that he fears free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.

“Germany is a very strong democracy, and as a strong democracy, we are absolutely clear that the extreme right should be out of political control and out of political decision making processes, and that there will be no cooperation with them," Scholz said. "We really reject any idea of cooperation between parties, other parties and this extreme right parties.”

A day earlier, Vance said that many Americans saw in Europe "entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.”

Scholz, shooting back, said “free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against legislation and laws we have in our country." He was alluding to rules in Germany that restrict hate speech.

The comments came as European leaders have been trying to make sense of a tough new line from Washington on issues including democracy and Ukraine's future, as the Trump administration continues to upend trans-Atlantic conventions that have been in place since after World War II.

U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week in which he said the two leaders would likely meet soon to negotiate a peace deal over Ukraine. Trump later assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he, too, would have a seat at the table. The war was sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

Already Friday, the Ukrainian leader said that his country wants security guarantees before any talks with Russia. Shortly before meeting with Vance in Munich, Zelenskyy said he will only agree to meet in-person with Putin after a common plan is negotiated with Trump.

After a 40-minute meeting with Zelenskyy, Vance said the Trump administration wants the war to end.

Beforehand, Vance lectured European officials on free speech and illegal migration on the continent, warning that they risk losing public support if they don’t quickly change course.

“The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” Vance said in a speech that drew a tepid response. “What I worry about is the threat from within — the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”

On the sidelines of the event, Vance met with Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, nine days before a German election.

Mainstream German parties say they won’t work with the party — in a longstanding stance to shun the extreme right in a country scarred by Nazism.

Vance later headed back to Washington.

Among other speakers set to take the dais in Munich were NATO chief Mark Rutte and foreign ministers from countries including Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and from Syria's new government.

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, attends a meeting with United States Vice-President JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, attends a meeting with United States Vice-President JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

U.S. Vice President JD Vance waves as he boards Air Force Two for travel back to Washington from Munich International Airport in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb.14, 2025. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Vice President JD Vance waves as he boards Air Force Two for travel back to Washington from Munich International Airport in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb.14, 2025. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP)

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