Justin Trudeau responds after Donald Trump confirmed ‘unjustified’ tariffs on Canada as trade war escalates

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has issued a statement following Donald Trump’s confirmation the US will be ‘imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports’.

Last month, Donald Trump signed off on an order imposing ‘catastrophic’ tariffs to ‘hold China, Mexico and Canada accountable for their promises to halt the flood of poisonous drugs into the US’ by placing 25 percent tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on China.

The only ‘solution’ for Canada to avoid the tariff according to the 47th President of the US? For Canada to ‘become [the US’] Cherished 51st State’.

On March 3, Trudeau released a statement online about the ‘unjustified US tariffs against Canada’.

The statement reads: “Today, after a 30-day pause, the United States administration has decided to proceed with imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports and 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian energy. Let me be unequivocally clear – there is no justification for these actions.”

When Trump first announced the order, an announcement released by the White House stated the tariffs are part of Trump ‘taking bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country’.

“There is growing production of fentanyl in Canada, and enough fentanyl was seized at the northern border last fiscal year to kill 9.8 million Americans,” the order claimed. “Additionally, illegal border crossings from Canada reached historic new highs every year for the last four fiscal years.”

Responding directly to this, Trudeau’s statement argues ‘less than one percent of the fentanyl intercepted at the US border comes from Canada’ and the country has ‘worked relentlessly to address this scourge that affects Canadians and Americans alike’.