- Follow here for live coverage of the details and impact on Canada of the U.S. tariffs. The CBC News Network livestream above runs until 11 p.m. ET.
- Trump launches trade war with a 25 per cent tariff on most Canadian goods — 10 per cent on energy products. They take effect Tuesday, a senior Canadian government official says.
- Trudeau will convene a meeting with premiers this afternoon to discuss Canada’s plan to hit back against U.S. president.
- Trudeau is expected to make an announcement at around 6 p.m. ET., sources say.
President Donald Trump launched a trade war against Canada on Saturday by imposing a 25 per cent tariff on virtually all goods from this country — an unprecedented strike against a longstanding ally that has the potential to throw the economy into a tailspin.
Trump’s long-threatened plan to inflict economic pain on Canada has materialized on the day he said it would, and it includes a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy products, according to a senior Canadian official who shared details of Trump’s plan with CBC News.
These potentially devastating tariffs will take effect on Tuesday and remain in place until Trump is satisfied Canada is doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., the government official said.
Experts have said trade action of this magnitude has the potential to shave billions of dollars off of Canada’sgross domestic product (GDP) and plunge the country into a painful recession requiring government stimulus to prop up the economy.
Canada is expected to hit back later Saturday with retaliatory tariffs of its own to make Trump think twice about taking on his country’s biggest customer.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to make an announcement at 6 p.m. ET, sources told CBC News.
U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war against Canada on Saturday by imposing a 25 per cent tariff on virtually all goods. Sources told CBC’s David Cochrane that the U.S. is ready to increase tariffs if Canada retaliates.
Trump’s move Saturday shows no country is safe from his push to dramatically reshape the U.S. economy, roll back globalization and torpedo free trade deals like the new NAFTA, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, that he signed in his first term.
Some $800 billion worth of goods crossed the Canada-U.S. border in the first nine months of 2024 alone, according to Canadian government data.
Trump’s tariffs could drive down the flow of those goods with major ramifications for businesses and workers on both sides of the 49th parallel given just how intertwined the two countries are after decades of liberalized trade.
Data breaks down what’s driving trade deficit
Trump is delivering on a campaign promise to seek retribution from countries he claims are “ripping off” the U.S.
By doing so, he is ignoring data that indicates the Canada-U.S. trade deficit is largely driven by American demand for cheaper Canadian oil. When oil exports are excluded, the Americans actually have a trade surplus with Canada, according to Canadian government data.
Trump has cited wildly inaccurate trade deficit figures in the past, claiming at different times it’s anywhere from $100 billion to $200 billion. The U.S. government’s own data suggests the trade in goods deficit with Canada was $55 billion US as of November 2024.
Trump has also said the tariffs are to punish Canada for being lax on drugs and migrants even as the U.S. government’s figures show less than one per cent of fentanyl and illegal migrants are coming from this country.
Figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show the agency seized just 19.5 kilograms of fentanyl at the northern border last year, compared to a whopping 9,570 kilograms at the southwestern one.
CBP data shows the number of people sneaking over the border into the U.S. last year was 24,000, a drop in the bucket compared to the surge coming in from Mexico.
The president teased for weeks that if Canada did more to crack down on the border, the country might get a reprieve from his trade actions.
The Canadian government delivered a billion-dollar border plan, but it wasn’t enough. Trump said Friday there was nothing Canada could do to avoid the tariffs.
‘The coming days and weeks will be hard’
The next move in this trade war will fall to Trudeau and the federal cabinet.
The government has promised to hit back against Trump with retaliatory tariffs and possibly even more dramatic actions, like withholding crucial energy supplies, if it can’t get the president to back down.
Trudeau will convene a meeting with the premiers later Saturday afternoon to brief them on what Canada is prepared to do in response.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, who currently leads the premiers as head of the Council of the Federation, has called for forceful action to make Americans feel the pain of Trump’s tariffs.
Ford recently called a snap provincial election, saying he wanted a stronger mandate to deal with tariff issues. In a social media post on Saturday, he said “the coming days and weeks will be hard.”
“Our economy will feel the impact of President Trump’s tariffs almost immediately, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk,” he said.
I believe Trump has underestimated Canadians. He has failed to realize that he has enraged and united an entire nation that is ready to fight to defend every last job in this country.– Lana Payne, Unifor president
Starting next week, American companies will be forced to pay tariffs to the U.S. government on the Canadian goods they import.
Those added costs could make some Canadian goods less competitive compared to those made in the U.S. or coming from other countries.
If Canadian companies can’t sell their products into the U.S. at the same volume, some of them may have to close down or scale back and lay off workers.
But some goods can’t easily be replaced, and there are potential knock-on effects for the U.S. economy, such as higher prices for American consumers.
The trickle-down effects of tariffs
Before Trump imposed his tariffs, the Canadian government said U.S. gas prices could jump some 75 cents US a gallon overnight if he went ahead with tariffs.
Some U.S. Midwest refineries are entirely reliant on heavy crude from Alberta, and the Americans don’t produce nearly enough oil on their own to meet demand.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is ‘not looking for concessions’ from Canada as the White House confirmed he’s going forward with 25 per cent levies on imports from Canada on Saturday. Trump added he will ‘probably’ set tariffs on Canadian oil at 10 per cent.
The cost of electricity could also get immediately more expensive because many U.S. states rely on power from energy-rich provinces like B.C., Ontario and Quebec to keep the lights on in millions of American households.
Farmers could also bear the brunt of higher prices for Saskatchewan potash, a crucial ingredient in fertilizers used in agriculture. Steelmakers could feel the pinch with Quebec aluminum, widely used by U.S. industry, being 25 per cent more expensive.
Canadian lumber, favoured by U.S. homebuilders, will also spike, driving up the cost of new homes at a time when home prices have never been higher in the U.S.
Tariffs an ‘act of hostility,’ ‘profoundly disturbing’
Lana Payne, president of Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, said Trump’s decision to “go to battle with America’s largest trading partner will hurt working people on both sides of the border.”
Payne, who is also a member of Trudeau’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, said the government must “retaliate swiftly and definitively” to Trump’s “unjust” actions.
Ahead of a meeting with the prime minister and fellow premiers, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said the threat of U.S. tariffs is not just an economic attack but one on Canada’s values, sovereignty and identity. Furey told CBC’s Rosemary Barton the response needs to be firm but responsible, even as President Donald Trump warned Canada against retaliation.
“I believe Trump has underestimated Canadians. He has failed to realize that he has enraged and united an entire nation that is ready to fight to defend every last job in this country. We will never forget this act of hostility against our workers, and we must take every measure possible — utilize every ounce of creativity we have — to build a strong, resilient and diverse economy to never be held hostage by America again.”
Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Trump’s actions are “profoundly disturbing” and will have “immediate and direct consequences on Canadian and American livelihoods.”
“Tariffs will drastically increase the cost of everything for everyone,” Laing said.
