By Barry Ellsworth
TRENTON, Canada (AA) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he called an urgent meeting later this week with provincial premiers on how to deal with Donald Trump’s threat to impose crippling tariffs on Canadian products.
Speaking to reporters one day after the US president-elect promised to slam Canada with a 25% tariff across the board, Trudeau said there must be a joint effort to tackle the threat.
"This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that's what we'll do," Trudeau said before heading to a meeting with his Cabinet, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. "One of the really important things is that we be all pulling together on this. The Team Canada approach is what works."
Trump said the tariffs, which include a levy on Mexico, will be in force until Canada and Mexico stop illegal immigrants crossing into the US from those two countries and stop the drugs from entering as well.
The tariff could have a crippling effect on the Canadian economy, but hurt the US, too.
Beth Burke, chief executive officer of the Canadian American Business Council said the tariffs would “erode the economic and geopolitical strength of North America,” the National Post reported.
The US is Canada’s largest export market. In 2023, Canada exported CAN$592.7 billion ($420.87 billion) in goods to the US and that represents more than 77% of all Canadian exports.
The US Customs and Board Protection agency, meanwhile, said border officers had 23,721 encounters with illegal migrants trying to cross into the US from Canada, the National Post reported.
But the agency had 1,530,523 encounters at the Mexico border.
Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the crossings from Canada are “the equivalent on a yearly basis of a significant weekend at the Mexican border.”