U.S. allies moved to punish electricity prices and threatened to cut off shipments of valuable minerals like high-grade nickel used in military and energy technology as President Donald Trump moved forward with imposing tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a news conference Monday told reporters that his country is responding by imposing 25 percent tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of American goods — using a phased-in approach — until the Trump administration withdraws its duties. Mexico’s president said retaliatory tariffs would arrive Sunday.
Calling it an “unjustified trade war,” Trudeau said Trump is angling to destroy his country’s economy so it can be annexed, but that Canada will “never be the 51st state” and that he plans to fight the duties with retaliatory measures. Trudeau also defended his country’s push to thwart fentanyl and said the premise for the tariffs is inaccurate.
“Your government has chosen to do this to you,” Trudeau said, directly addressing Americans. “They’ve chosen to harm American national security, impeding access to the abundant critical minerals, energy, building materials and fertilizers that we have and that the United States needs to grow and prosper.”
