While Ottawa hoped to have perhaps escaped the worst, the new American president, Donald Trump, finally announced, Monday evening, that he intended to impose customs duties of 25% on Canadian and Mexican products from 1is FEBRUARY.
“We are considering imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada because they allow large numbers of people […] and fentanyl to come in,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office around 8 p.m.
“I think we will do it on the 1stis February,” he added as he signed his first presidential decrees.
In an emergency press briefing Monday evening, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared that the federal government was ready to retaliate against President Trump.
“For several weeks, we have been working […] to prepare response scenarios in the event that the American government decides to move forward,” argued Minister LeBlanc, in Montebello, in Outaouais.
“The good news is that we are prepared for any eventuality. The plan is ready, the government is ready,” he assured, without specifying when the Canadian response would be announced.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all members of his cabinet are gathered in Montebello for a two-day retreat.
Last week, senior government officials indicated that the prime minister could quickly announce a first wave of countertariffs if President Trump follows through on his tariff threat on his first day in office. A second and third round of customs countermeasures were also on the table, if necessary.
Last week, Justin Trudeau and his provincial counterparts, who met in Ottawa, also affirmed that all options for retaliation were being considered, including the imposition of tariffs on energy exports.
Caution and relief
Just hours before the surprise announcement made in the evening, the idea of customs tariffs seemed to have been avoided in the short term.
On Monday morning, American media reported that no tariffs would be imposed on Canada through an executive order on Trump’s first day in office, as he had threatened to do in November. The new president was instead to issue a general memorandum asking federal agencies, among other things, to evaluate the United States’ trade relations with China, Canada and Mexico, according to their information.
In his inauguration speech in the afternoon, the new American president declared that he would impose customs tariffs “on foreign countries”, but did not mention his tariff threat of 25% on all goods imported from Canada .
-“I will immediately begin overhauling our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will impose tariffs and taxes on foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” declared the man who became the 47e President of the United States around noon Monday.
Throughout the day, several ministers of the Trudeau government appeared relieved, even if they remained cautious.
“It’s certainly a good thing that no tariffs were announced today, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any. We must be prepared,” warned the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, in a press scrum in the heart of the rustic reception hall of the log hotel, before Trump’s statement in the evening.
In his inaugural address, Donald Trump also indicated that he would create the External Revenue Service, a new agency that will collect tariffs and other revenues from foreign nations.
“There will be massive amounts of money flowing into our Treasury from foreign sources. The American dream will soon return and prosper like never before,” Mr. Trump promised, a few minutes after taking the oath of office at the Capitol.
Tariffs of 25% could reduce Canada’s GDP by 2.6% and would cost, on average, $1,900 per person.
Influx at the border
Like his tariff threat, President Trump’s vast anti-immigration offensive also came to fruition on Monday.
“I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entries will be stopped immediately, and we will begin sending millions and millions of criminal aliens back to where they came from,” Mr. Trump said during his inauguration speech.
In Montebello, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty (who succeeded Dominic LeBlanc in the last cabinet shuffle) indicated that a plan had been developed for a possible influx of migrants at the Canada-US border .
“We met a few days ago with the Public Security team, the RCMP commissioner and the president of [l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada]. There is a plan in place,” he said in the afternoon, adding to monitor the figures “very closely”.
However, no changes had been recorded as of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
