Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless they stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders with the United States. He said on social media last week that he would impose a 25 percent tax all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, attended Friday night with Trump and Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Trudeau requested a meeting in an attempt to avoid tariffs by persuading Trump that the northern border nothing like the US southern border with Mexico.
“The prime minister has of course talked about the importance of protecting the Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we’ve also talked to our American friends about the negative impact these tariffs could have on their economy, on affordability in the United States as well,” LeBlanc said in to the parliament.
If Trump fulfills his threat by introducing tariffs of 25%. on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, price increases that may follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation.
Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass on the extra costs, raising prices dramatically for food, clothing, cars, alcohol and other goods.
The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last week that the tariffs would raise the price of fresh fruits and vegetables and hurt American farmers when countries retaliate.
Canada already is examining possible reprisals tariffs on certain items from the US if Trump follows through on the threat.
After dinner with Trump, Trudeau he returned home with no assurances that the president-elect would drop the threatened tariffs on all products of America’s main trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled he wasn’t backing down on a pledge Canada says unfairly puts it on par with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.
“The idea that we came back empty-handed is completely false,” LeBlanc said. “We had a very productive discussion with Mr. Trump and his incoming cabinet secretaries. … Mr. Trump’s commitment to continue working with us was far from empty-handed.”
Trump and Trudeau were joined at the dinner by Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for his national security adviser.
Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so different from the border with Mexico really got across.” Hillman, who sat at the table next to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not a problem when it comes to drugs and migrants.
On Monday, the Mexican president rejected those comments.
“Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” said President Claudia Sheinbaum. She said Canada has its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “can only wish they had the cultural richness that Mexico has.”
Migrant flows and drug seizures at the border of the two countries differ greatly. US customs officials seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared to 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl that reaches the US – where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually – is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
On immigration, the US Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.
Canada is the main export destination for 36 US states. Almost C$3.6 billion (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border every day. About 60% of US crude oil imports come from Canada, as well as 85% of US electricity imports.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon wants and invests in for national security.
