The two officials are scheduled to speak on Wednesday morning
Prime Minister Justine Trudeau will not fully remove Canada's retaliatory tariffs if United States President Donald Trump leaves any tariffs on Canada, according to a senior Canadian government official.
The anonymous official dismissed the idea of a compromise floated by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. In particular, Trudeau will reject any scenario where Canada has to rescind its retaliatory tariffs in exchange for a partial rollback of American tariffs. However, the official did not clarify if Canada would scale back some of its retaliation measures if Trump eases certain tariffs.
The two officials are scheduled to speak on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian imports except energy products, which have a 10% rate. Trudeau's government responded with levies against $30 billion worth of American products, such as cosmetics, tires, fruit and wine. An additional $125 billion in tariffs will target U.S.-made cars, aluminum and agricultural products, taking effect in March.
Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that Trump is considering tariff relief for particular sectors.
“There are going to be tariffs — let’s be clear — but what he’s thinking about is which sections of the market that maybe he’ll consider giving them relief until we get to, of course, April 2,” Lutnick said. “I think it is going to be in the middle somewhere.”
Lutnick insisted the tariffs are not part of a trade war but a "drug war" meant to curb fentanyl-related deaths in the U.S.
Trudeau has rejected that explanation, citing U.S. border data showing small amounts of the drug are found by agents at or near the Canada-U.S. border.
“The excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false,” Trudeau said Tuesday in Ottawa. “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that’ll make it easier to annex us.”
Trudeau also warned the tariffs would harm Americans.
“He is rapidly going to find out, as American families are going to find out, that that’s going to hurt people on both sides of the border,” he said. “Americans will lose jobs, Americans will be paying more for groceries, for gas, for cars, for homes.”
Canadian Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Trump's actions have permanently damaged U.S.-Canada relations.
“Even if the tariffs are withdrawn, we will never go back to where we were three months ago,” Wilkinson said in Toronto. “We will never trust the Americans in the same way that we did.”
