Trump promises 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — including from Canada
U.S. President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico — a move that prompted sharp criticism from some provincial premiers.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, “aluminum, too” will be subject to the trade penalties.
Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” — “probably Tuesday or Wednesday” — meaning that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods.
“If they are charging us 130 per cent and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not going to stay that way,” he told reporters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is currently in Paris ahead of a high-profile artificial intelligence summit. He did not respond to reporters’ questions about Trump’s tariff announcement as he walked into his hotel following a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.
A senior Canadian government official told CBC News they’ve seen the news from Trump and have no additional information at this time. The source also said they are going to wait to see something official in writing.
CBC News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment.
Speaking on Metro Morning, the manager of Toronto’s Conquest Steel says local manufacturers need government support to protect jobs as U.S. contracts get pulled.
Provinces criticize Trump’s announcement
Some provincial leaders, like Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier François Legault, criticized Trump’s tariff announcement for creating economic uncertainty.
On Sunday evening, Ford said in a social media post, “This is the next four years. Shifting goalposts and constant chaos, putting our economy at risk.”
Later in the day, Legault posted in French on social media and said Trump’s announcement “shows that we must begin to renegotiate our free trade agreement with the United States as soon as possible and not wait for the revision planned for 2026. We must put an end to this uncertainty.”
The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which is the trilateral trade pact Legault referred to in his post, must be reviewed in 2026. Trump promised during last year’s election campaign that he would renegotiate the agreement.
Trump has previously denied using tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods to push for an early renegotiation of the agreement.
U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the suggestion that he’s using the threat of tariffs to push for an early renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is prepared to hit back with dollar-for-dollar tariffs on American goods.
Steel producers association CEO reacts
Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said she’s concerned about the promised tariffs but noted that details are still to be confirmed.
“If these tariffs proceed, they will be devastating but challenging on both sides of the border,” she told CBC News Network on Sunday night.
Cobden said Canada’s top job should be to get an exemption from the potential tariffs, and she’s hoping the Canadian government is connecting with the Trump administration to highlight “the highly integrated nature of our business.”
If Canada can’t get an exemption, she said, there’s a “very strong necessity to respond hard and fast with retaliatory tariffs of our own.”
Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs at 25 and 10 per cent respectively during his first term in March 2018, using national security as justification.
Canada was initially given an exemption to those duties, but it was ultimately hit by the tariffs on May 31, 2018. Canada responded with a series of counter-tariffs on American products like Florida orange juice.
Nearly a year later, on May 17, 2019, the White House announced a deal had been reached to prevent “surges” in the steel and aluminum supplies from Canada and Mexico, ending the trade dispute.
In the first weeks of his second term, which began on Jan. 20, Trump threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products on Feb. 1 due to border security issues around fentanyl and illegal immigration, prompting the two countries to order retaliatory levies.
On Feb. 3, both Canada and Mexico were granted reprieves of at least 30 days from the threat being realized after both Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum talked to Trump about their respective border plans.
Canada’s plan includes $1.3 billion in spending, first announced in December, on enhanced border security, including patrols with helicopters, and the creation of a “fentanyl czar,” who will work with U.S. counterparts in combating the toxic drug crisis.
Canada ‘not viable as a country’: Trump
During his conversation with reporters on Air Force One, Trump once again criticized Canada over its defence spending and reiterated his desire to make Canada the 51st state.
“They don’t pay very much for the military, and the reason they don’t pay much is they assume that we’re going to protect them,” Trump said. “That’s not an assumption they can make, because why are we protecting another country?”
The U.S. president also said that Canada is “not viable as a country.”
Trump’s comments about Canada becoming a U.S. state, once described as jokes by some Canadian officials, now appear to be no laughing matter for Trudeau and other top Canadian politicians.
Following his public remarks at the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told business and labour leaders that U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st state are ‘a real thing.’ Trudeau’s comments were heard over the loudspeakers.
At a Canada-U.S. Economic Summit in Toronto on Friday, the prime minister told a room of business leaders that Trump’s threat to annex Canada is “a real thing” motivated by his desire to tap into the country’s critical minerals.
In an interview Sunday on NBC News’ Meet The Press, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said he doesn’t think the president has “any plans to invade Canada,” but there are “a lot of people” who like the United States and don’t like Trudeau’s governance.
On Friday, Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand told reporters that “there will be no messing with the 49th parallel.”
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