President Donald Trump has vowed to impose a 100% tariff on Canadian goods should Ottawa strike a new trade deal with Beijing, after Canada agreed to slash duties on Chinese electric vehicles earlier this month.
Trump made the threat from his Truth Social account on Saturday, taking a jab at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who he dubbed a “governor” – likely a reference to his previous suggestion to make Canada the next US state.
“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the USA,” the president said, adding “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life.”
While the two countries don’t appear to be in talks for any broader trade deal, Ottawa recently agreed to drop a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles entering the Canadian market in exchange for lower tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods.
Trump’s latest comments marked a major shift in tone on the deal, as he praised the China-Canada tariff arrangement when it was first announced earlier this month. “That’s what [Carney] should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” he told reporters on January 16.
The new tariff threat from Washington comes amid growing tensions between Trump and his Canadian counterpart, thanks in part to US efforts to “acquire” Greenland. That push has stoked major controversy with a number of European states, who staged an abrupt round of military exercises in Greenland as an apparent warning to the US. Ottawa has weighed whether to expand its own military presence in Greenland to show support for the autonomous Danish territory, despite threats from Trump to impose tariffs on eight European countries opposed to a US takeover.
US-Canada relations took another hit following Carney’s speech at the Davos conference in Switzerland earlier this week, where he indirectly accused Trump of creating a geopolitical “rupture” among longstanding allies.
“More recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” the PM said.
Trump used his own Davos speech to respond, declaring that Canada “lives because of the United States,” and later revoked an invitation for Ottawa to join his so-called “Board of Peace” project.
Further underscoring the heightened tensions were reports earlier this week that Canadian military officials had developed a model for how to combat a hypothetical US invasion. While the officials insisted the scenario was unlikely, the plan reportedly seeks to inflict “mass casualties” on occupying American troops using a range of unconventional war tactics.
