Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Donald Trump that Americans would also suffer if the incoming president follows through on a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Monday.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products coming from Canada and Mexico if they do not stem the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said on social media last week that he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, joined Trump and Trudeau for dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Friday.
Trudeau requested the meeting in part to avoid tariffs by explaining to Trump that the northern border is not the same as the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“The prime minister certainly talked about the importance of protecting Canada’s economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with our American friends the negative impact that tariffs could have on their economy, as well as on affordability in the United States,” LeBlanc said in Parliament.
If Trump carries out his threat to impose a 25% tariff on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada, the resulting price hikes would clash with his election promise to provide relief from inflation to American families.
Economists say companies would have no choice but to pass on the extra costs, dramatically raising the prices of food, clothing, automobiles, alcohol and other items.
The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last week that tariffs would raise the price of fresh fruits and vegetables and hurt American farmers when countries retaliate.
Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on some goods from the US, if Trump follows through on that threat.
Trudeau returned home after dinner with Trump without any assurances that the president-elect would back down from his threat of tariffs on all products from a major U.S. trading partner.
Trump called the talks “productive” but did not signal a retreat from a pledge Canada says is unfairly engaging with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. “The idea that we came back empty-handed is completely false,” LeBlanc said. “We had very productive discussions with Mr. Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. … The commitment from Mr. Trump to continue working with us was far from empty-handed.”
Joining Trump and Trudeau at the dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick to become Trump’s national security adviser.
Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is very different from the Mexican border has really been understood.” Hillman, who sat at a table next to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not the problem when it comes to drugs and migrants.
On Monday, Mexico’s president rejected those comments.
“Mexico deserves to be respected, especially by its trading partners,” said President Claudia Sheinbaum. She said Canada has its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “wishes they could have the kind of cultural richness that Mexico has.”
The flow of migrants and seizures of drugs along the two countries’ borders are very different. During the last fiscal year, U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl that reaches the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled in from Asia.
In terms of immigration, the US Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants along the southwestern border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. This can be compared to 23,721 encounters along the Canadian border during that time.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. About 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border every day. About 60% of crude oil imports to the US are from Canada, and 85% of electricity imports to the US are also from Canada.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum, and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is keen on and investing in for national security.