U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent import tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico.
Premier Scott Moe says a steep new U.S. tariff would be “tremendously negative” for Saskatchewan’s economy and employment.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country’s premiers are preparing to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the situation.
On Monday night, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent import tariff on goods coming from Canada and Mexico on the day he takes office in January. Trump made the comments on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying the tariffs would remain in effect until Canada and Mexico stop illegal border crossings and prevent drugs like fentanyl from entering the U.S.
“That’s disastrous, really, for what we say is always important, which is energy and food security across North America, not just in Canada or the U.S.,” Moe said Tuesday during an appearance on CTV Morning Live.
Before Trump’s post on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford had asked for an urgent meeting between the premiers and Trudeau to prepare for the new administration. That request took on new urgency after Trump’s post.
Trudeau spoke by phone on Monday with Ford, who chairs the Council of the Federation, and other premiers, including Quebec Premier Francois Legault.
“One of the really important things is that we be all pulling together on this. The Team Canada approach is what works,” Trudeau said.
The meeting is set to be held virtually at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Saskatchewan is “going to support the federal government in their engagement efforts,” Moe said.
“We’re going to engage as Canada’s 13 premiers through the Council of Federation table and then we’ll use contacts that we have built over the last number of years, as well, to engage on Saskatchewan and Canada’s behalf.”
Ford, on Tuesday at a press conference, called the tariff threats serious and unfounded.
“I found his comments unfair. I found them insulting. It’s like a family member stabbing you right in the heart,” he said in Toronto.
“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America.”
Trudeau needs to do better on border security, and give more resources to the Canada Border Services Agency to secure the borders and address the flow of drugs, Ford said.
“One ounce of any illegal drug is one ounce too many going back and forth across the border,” he said.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller suggested Tuesday the government is looking at what additional resources are needed at the border.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, its officers recorded nearly 200,000 encounters at the northern border in the fiscal year that ended in September. That figure includes apprehensions, people who are deemed inadmissible and those who are expelled from the U.S.
Chief border patrol agent Robert Garcia recently said agents in the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont’s border with Quebec, apprehended more than 19,000 people from 97 countries in the last year — more than the last 17 years combined.
The U.S. border agency says it also seized more than 11,000 pounds of drugs at the Canadian border in the last year, including 43 pounds of fentanyl.
The week Trump was re-elected, Trudeau restored the Canada-U. S. relations cabinet committee that had been dormant since Joe Biden won the 2020 election. That committee has met several times already and was in the midst of a meeting Monday night when Trump posted his tariff threat.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement that Canada places “the highest priority on border security and the integrity of our shared border.”
She also stressed that cross-border trade between the two countries is significant, noting in particular that 60 per cent of U.S. crude oil imports came from Canada last year.
A 25 per cent tariff on those imports is expected to immediately jack up gas prices for American consumers.
Moe, who is hopeful that engagement with the U.S. administration would be effective, said on Tuesday that a 25 per cent tariff would hurt Saskatchewan from a jobs and employment perspective, “and it really doesn’t build us towards that broader goal that we have of a strong continental security situation, whether it’s food security, energy security, manufacturing security. We’re very integrated across that 49th parallel,” Moe said.
“I think President Trump and the United States of America, and all Americans, know that, as well. But at times we maybe have to remind ourselves of this. There’s a conversation coming, and we very much are going to represent Saskatchewan’s interests alongside the federal government, but alongside the other premiers — and on our own, when necessary, as well,” Moe said.
A meeting this week between Trudeau and the country’s premiers “is absolutely necessary” to ensure they are all an aligned Canadian voice, Moe said, adding that it’s only possible to build a stronger economy across North America if all three countries are unified.
“We can only do that together. We can’t do that in isolation, nor can the U.S.”
Trudeau said he had a good call with Trump on Monday evening.
“We obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth. We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together,” Trudeau said.
“It was a good call. This is something we can do, laying out the facts in constructive ways. This is a relationship we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do.”
— With Saskatoon StarPhoenix files
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