Canada braces for tariffs as U.S. says not enough done on fentanyl

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OTTAWA — Canada is bracing for a decision from U.S. President Donald Trump on levying tariffs on Canadian imports, as the clocks ticks down on the country’s 30-day reprieve. 

Trump has vowed to hit Mexico and Canada with tariffs beginning Tuesday. He initially set those levies at 25 per cent for all imports, except for a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy.

As the Tuesday deadline looms, White House officials have signalled the president may be open to levying smaller tariffs, citing the efforts both Canada and Mexico have made when it comes to tightening up border security to address Trump’s concerns about the flow of fentanyl and migrants into the U.S.

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“They have done a lot, so he’s sort of thinking about right now how exactly he wants to play with Mexico and Canada, and that is a fluid situation,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News on Sunday.

“There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers, who have been dispatched to Washington in an effort to avoid U.S. tariffs, say that less than one per cent of the fentanyl and migrants entering the U.S. comes from Canada.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller, who met with Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, last Thursday, told National Post the Canadian delegation argued that some of the amounts the U.S. is citing are inaccurate and being incorrectly attributed to Canada when it, in fact, comes from Mexico.

While he characterized the meeting with Homan as good, Miller said there were no guarantees on the table about how tariffs could be avoided.

“A clear set of things that would prevent tariffs from happening is not there,” he told National Post last Friday. 

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“We should brace for it and brace for the fact that this could go on for the next four years.”

Lutnick told Fox News on Sunday he believes Canada and Mexico have “done a reasonable job” of tightening their border controls, but says he believes more needs to be done to stop the flow of fentanyl.

“They just haven’t moved on the fentanyl deaths in America.”

The deadly opioid has fuelled an overdose crisis across North America, with Canadian officials saying the death toll is sometimes higher in Canada than it is south of the border.

Appointing a so-called “fentanyl czar” was one of the promises Trudeau made to Trump when he secured the 30-day delay and has since appointed Kevin Brosseau, who recently served as his deputy national security and intelligence advisor after spending two decades as an RCMP leader in Manitoba, to the role.

Brosseau, along with RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme, attended last week’s meeting in Washington to try and reassure the Americans the efforts Canada was making to tackle the illegal fentanyl trade.

Included in that was Canada’s decision to list Mexican drug cartels as terrorist entities, which was another promise Trudeau made to Trump last month.

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Trudeau, who spent the weekend in London meeting with European leaders, has vowed to retaliate should Trump follow through on his threat of hitting Canada with tariffs. Last month, he announced Canada would hit back by imposing 25 per cent tariffs on $155-billion worth of U.S. goods, but shelved those plans once an agreement to delay was reached.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Sunday called for Canada to retaliate, saying any revenue it makes through imposing tariffs should be directed to help impacted workers and offer Canadians tax relief.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has demanded Trudeau work with opposition federal parties to prepare a relief package to help workers and businesses who could be hurt by Trump’s trade levies.

Besides the March 4 threat of tariffs, Canada and other allies are also bracing for tariffs on steel and aluminum, which Trump has vowed to impose on March  12.

National Post
staylor@postmedia.com

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