Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, March 4, that President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada to destroy the country's economy to make it easier for the United States to annex its northern neighbor. The extraordinary warning about Trump's threat to Canadian sovereignty came as the US president delivered on his vow to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods. Canada immediately retaliated, triggering a trade war between previously close allies and threatening future commerce across a border that regularly sees billions of dollars in daily trade.
Trump has said the tariffs are necessary to force Canadian action against what he describes as the flow of undocumented migrants and the drug fentanyl across the border. Trudeau has maintained that Canada is not a significant contributor to either problem in the United States, and on Tuesday called Trump's fentanyl justification "completely false."
Asked about Trump's motivations for imposing tariffs, Trudeau said 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." "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." Trudeau also addressed Trump directly, saying that while he thinks Trump is a "smart guy," the tariffs are a "very dumb thing to do."
Trudeau, who has been in power since 2015, is due to be replaced as the leader of the governing Liberal Party on Sunday. He has said he will step down as prime minister as soon as the party's new leader is chosen. Trudeau has publicly tried to address Trump's concerns on migrants and fentanyl, in hopes of avoiding the tariffs that came into force on Tuesday. Canada has pushed through a costly new border security plan and named a fentanyl czar to lead the effort against the killer in the opioid. Trudeau said his focus remained on getting US tariffs lifted "as quickly as possible," adding that he remained ready to talk directly to Trump.