Trudeau: Trump threatened to annex Canada to distract from tariffs impression | Canada

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has described Donald Trump’s discuss of presumably annexing Canada as a tactic designed to distract folks from the impression of his proposed tariffs.

Trump, who says he’ll impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports except Ottawa boosts border safety, stated on Tuesday that he was contemplating utilizing “financial pressure” to accumulate Canada.

“What I feel is going on in that is President Trump, who’s a really skilful negotiator, is getting folks to be considerably distracted by that dialog,” Trudeau advised CNN when requested about Trump’s remarks.

“Oil and gasoline and electrical energy and metal and aluminium and lumber and concrete and the whole lot the American shoppers purchase from Canada [are] all of a sudden going to get much more costly if he strikes ahead on these tariffs,” he stated.

Trudeau, who this week stated there was not “a snowball’s probability in hell” that Canada would develop into a part of the US, reiterated to CNN that Ottawa would impose countermeasures if Trump made good on this risk.

Trudeau recalled that in a bilateral commerce dispute in 2018, Canada put tariffs on Heinz ketchup, taking part in playing cards, bourbon and Harley-Davidson bikes, “issues that will harm American staff”.

He added: “However we don’t need to do this as a result of it drives up costs for Canadians and it harms our closest buying and selling companion.”