WASHINGTON – Canadian officials are anxiously waiting to see if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to slap Canada with devastating tariffs today.
Trump said Friday he is considering lowering tariffs on Canadian oil to 10 per cent after the White House confirmed he is going forward with 25 per cent levies on imports from Canada and Mexico.
Trump didn’t implement the duties against Canada on his first day back in office, as he’d promised to do.
But the president did not back away from his tariff threat and repeatedly suggested the duties would come on Feb. 1.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Friday night in Washington, D.C., that it was still not clear what would happen after Trump’s latest comments.
The federal government has said it has multiple options for retaliatory tariffs ready to deploy, depending on what Trump ultimately does.
“We have yet seen any form of clear decision-making and as well as any form of specific details coming from the White House,” Joly said.
The president wasn’t clear on the details of his tariff plan as he responded to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. While answering an unrelated question, Trump also floated the idea of oil tariffs coming on Feb. 18. It was not clear if that statement was in relation to Canada.
Joly, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and Immigration Minister Marc Miller met with Republican officials, including Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, in the United States capital throughout the week in a last-ditch attempt to avert the tariffs.
The ministers said they shared Canada’s $1.3-billion border security plan, implemented to ease Trump’s concerns. Miller said they also explained facts about the small volume of people and drugs illegally crossing the Canada-U.S. border.
The volume of drugs entering the United States from Canada is minuscule compared to the amounts coming from Mexico and China.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show that officials seized 9,930 kilograms of fentanyl at American borders between October 2023 and September 2024. Only 20 kilograms of that amount came from Canada.
It’s unlikely boosting the border would have made a different to the president. Trump said Friday that there were no concessions that would stop Canada, Mexico or China from being hit with the levies.
Premiers have disagreed on how Canada should respond if Trump follows through on his threats.
Some say everything must be on the table, while Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe have said exports of oil and other resources like potash should not be included in retaliation plans.
The United States imported almost 4.6 million barrels of oil daily from Canada in October, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Moe and Smith said Friday that they were waiting to see what decision Trump ultimately makes.
“We would ask President Trump’s administration to not put those tariffs on,” Moe said Friday. “And we would also ask our federal government to address the priorities that President Trump has raised.”
— With files from Aaron Sousa in Edmonton and The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2025.
