The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on unjustified U.S. tariffs against Canada:

“Today, after a 30-day pause, the United States administration has decided to proceed with imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports and 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian energy. Let me be unequivocally clear – there is no justification for these actions.

“While less than 1 per cent of the fentanyl intercepted at the U.S. border comes from Canada, we have worked relentlessly to address this scourge that affects Canadians and Americans alike. We implemented a $1.3 billion border plan with new choppers, boots on the ground, more co-ordination, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. We appointed a Fentanyl Czar, listed transnational criminal cartels as terrorist organizations, launched the Joint Operational Intelligence Cell, and are establishing a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force on organized crime. Because of this work – in partnership with the United States – fentanyl seizures from Canada have dropped 97 per cent between December 2024 and January 2025 to a near-zero low of 0.03 pounds seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Canada will not let this unjustified decision go unanswered. Should American tariffs come into effect tonight, Canada will, effective 12:01 a.m. EST tomorrow, respond with 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion of American goods – starting with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately, and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion on American products in 21 days’ time. Our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. trade action is withdrawn, and should U.S. tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures. While we urge the U.S. administration to reconsider their tariffs, Canada remains firm in standing up for our economy, our jobs, our workers, and for a fair deal.

“Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs. Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term.”

  • jballs
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    3 hours ago

    Not trying to victim blame here, but Canada’s mistake was thinking these tariffs had anything to do with fentanyl or border security. These tariffs are literally just an ego thing for Trump. Outside of building a giant golden Trump monument and gifting it to the US like the Statue of Liberty, I don’t think there’s much they could have done.

    Either that or take a note from Putin and find some kompromat.

    • IronKrill@lemmy.caOP
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      15 minutes ago

      I wouldn’t call it a mistake, personally. Even knowing the farce that it is, acting nice gave us an extra 30 days to talk deals with other leaders plus gives us the moral highground to say we tried before beginning a counter with full resolve. Any concessions we gave were small.

    • xmunk
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      2 hours ago

      We obviously don’t think the US is genuine in their justification and the statement is designed to highlight how patently ridiculous it is.

      The fentanyl/border security tariff allowance is just a thin justification to avoid outright violating the terms of the treaty Trump previously negotiated.

  • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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    6 minutes ago

    Part of the response should be to remove everything put in place to appease Trump. Pull back the new border plan, take away the fentanyl czar, remove the terrorist designation from cartels (and apologize to Mexico), etc.

    And I also like Doctorow’s idea of removing all the copyright protection shit we put in place to appease the U.S. in the past and anything else we can think of like that.

    • imvii@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      Part of the response should be to remove everything put in place to appease Trump.

      Some of it, yes. But I think improved security is needed at the border now more than ever.

    • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      As an American, I always assumed hate against him was like Canadian Fox News stuff. What did he (not?) do to turn people against him?

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        I always assumed hate against him was like Canadian Fox News stuff.

        It mostly is, yes. The Conservative Party leader is very much a Maple Maga fanboy, and (like all Conservatives before him) he appeals to the Prairie provinces; the oil workers, farmers, truckers, etc… Your basic Fox news crowd. His father was also very disliked by the same crowd, and so his last name itself triggers them like you wouldn’t believe. (Think “Canadian Clintons”)

        But a large part of it (I initially thought), was also typical Canadian political trends. We tend to put the Liberals in power and then keep re-electing them long enough for them to inevitably become the villain (usually about a decade), and then over-correct and do the same thing with the Conservatives. Like clockwork, and it was coming up to about that time.

        Now, though, with Trudeau stepping down, and the promise of a new leader…combined with the general hatred of Pierre Poppinfresh, the Liberals fortunes have turned around 180 degrees. So it’s going to be an interesting federal election rather than the landslide that the Maple Maga fuckwits were expecting.

      • yarn@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        Honestly, people are just tired of him because he’s been in office so long and has failed to deliver on some old promises.

      • healthetank@lemmy.ca
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        7 hours ago

        I was hopeful when he got elected, and he fulfilled some promises, but he failed to move forward with proportional representation election overhaul, IMO a major flaw that could’ve been what he was known for in the future. He’s also had scandals like any other PM. The Me to We charity scandal (where a charity was awarded a large govt contract. The charity had previously paid Trudeau and family to appear at its events) was ultimately cleared by the ethics commissioner. His SNC lavalin scandal where he attempted to directly influence our justice minister to intervene on an ongoing criminal case, then removed her from her position when she refused. SNC lavalin was also found to have made illegal party donations, which the liberals didn’t reveal when the initially found them.

        He was also the first PM in history to have been found to break the federal ethics rules by accepting a private vacation for his family from Aga Khan, breaking the conflict of interest rules.

        He’s always paraded himself as very progressive, but images circulated of him wearing brown face when he was slightly younger (but definitely old enough to know better).

        Finally, a ton of people who were anti-mask were fed rhetoric that it was Trudeau’s fault for the masking requirements, despite the fact that it was almost entirely Provincial restrictions. They also tried to cry overreach when Ford failed to remove the Ottawa encampment, and Trudeau enacted the emergency act to clear them, though again, reviews after the fact cleared him and agreed it was an acceptable use of the powers.

        Overall, an enormous step up from Harper says of no transparency, but he didn’t quite live up to what many had hoped, and they’re angry at the current situation, and blaming him is an easy scapegoat.

      • rabber@lemmy.ca
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        2 hours ago

        He only does something when backed into a corner. Otherwise he plays stupid political games and dresses up in costumes etc. I like crisis trudeau but not chilling trudeau.

        Also he promised to change FPTP as someone else pointed out which is why I voted for him.

      • cheerytext1981@lemmy.ca
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        11 hours ago

        He’s been in office for nearly a decade. Canadians are tired of him. Realistically, he hasn’t done anything worse than any other politician — you make promises, some you deliver on, some you don’t. Eventually, the “don’t”s pile up, and folks get tired

        • idunnololz@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Yeah i don’t really mind him. The one thing I am salty about is still the election reforms that he promised the first time he won. He was in a position to do something big but didnt. Such a missed opportunity.

    • Tencho@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Agreed. I dont know if i remember a single positive thing he did before he announced his plan to resign from office. He’s been doing gods work lately.

      • assaultpotato
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        13 hours ago

        $10 a day child care was pretty good. I’m a fan of the dental coverage too. The carbon tax actually reduced our emissions for the first time and was overall a net financial benefit for most Canadians.

        He wasn’t amazing but he was not nearly the washout people act like he is.

      • Soleos@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Federal pandemic response was a mixed bag, but far from the shitshow of governing that some other countries experienced. Trudeau showed strong leadership through that period in my books.

        • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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          12 hours ago

          the shitshow of governing that some other countries experienced.

          waves from the US

          And now we get more. I hate this timeline.

  • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    Honest question: Does anyone know if those tariffs apply retroactively? Say you purchased something a couple weeks ago, but it hasn’t crossed the border yet due to shipping delays, would it get taxed under the old rules? Or does it incur the tariff?

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    5 hours ago

    Could suspend all/most tariffs from China while “illegitmate/unjustified” extortion is in place. That could help retailers with US crossborder shopping into Canada, and encourage US to drop tariffs quickly before alternate supply chains/brands take hold in Canada.

    It doesn’t make sense for Auto industry to start new US investments if tariffs go away in 2 or 4 years. But auto sector commitment to Canada is needed to not shift our auto consumption to better value imports. “National security” restrictions on FDI from China in our resource sector have to be eliminated today. Negotiate processing plants for resources in Canada, to ship more finished products elsewhere, but we need to stop having only US control our economy/security.

    US behaviour is unacceptable and based on lies. There is no negotiation that will work with such terrorists. Need to start permanent structural economic/security shifts now, and force US to beg forgiveness for their mistake.

    • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      Why do you have such a hard on to trade with china? The country who has a an opaque court to go after trade partners in Canada?

      You never seem to promote Africa other asian countries, europe (outside of russia) unless prompted.

      Edit: I keep forgetting South and Central America, don’t mean to not include them. Unlike sprial.

    • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      Also need to immediately remove terrorist designation of Mexican cartels (Excuse that entitles US to war on Mexico). Ships from China can help Canada Mexico trade bypassing US roads/rail if that is affected. Agriculture has important Mexican sourcing, and we have supply that competes with US. Auto parts trade can help smooth production in both countries.

      The direct oppossite of US sycophancy that has been applied prior to these tariffs needs to be Canadian policy. It plays into the divisiveness of the world that US profits from.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        First, China makes stuff that competes with what little the US makes. They also buy a lot of stuff. As a country that can stand up to US, protecting their trade with Canada could at least result in a UN security council objection to invasion.

        The US was by far the greatest evil in the world prior to Trump, but instead of hoping for CIA/deepstate evil against world, the US empire’s shift to explicit extortion/war on allies, and by far the biggest threat to Canada, explaining facts about fentanyl and fair trade balance is not an effective response. Trump/cabinet knows they are lying instead of mistaken.

        Aggressive moves to diversify trade now instead of waiting for war to roll out is needed. By all means sell stuff to Europe/Africa/South America, but China is a big market, and can sell us substitutes for everything US. Cancel US weapons contracts. Boeing orders.

        Playing into US hands to amplify divisiveness between us, China, Mexico is path to defeat. We need to be on team delete America, and divisiveness is team USA. Other NATO colonies will also be offered a path of divisiveness to increase their sycophancy to US. The Asian ones are so far spared, but may side with US, as their traditional CIA coopted sycophants are politically entrenched to servitude rather than “these supposed values we all BS about”.

          • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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            2 hours ago

            Being US vassal state was the weakness that exposed us to this war. Absolute devotion to “that nostalgia” is not best defense of Canadians.

            • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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              2 hours ago

              So, switching to china is better?

              Fuck off with that tankie bullshit. If you want an ally on the un security council: France and Britian are better allies (and current ones).

              The amount of china based solutions you peddle is hilariously transparent as to who you align with, and that’s not Canada.