President Donald Trump threatened to punish American car owners and buyers by unilaterally imposing a 50 percent import tax on any car or auto parts produced in Canada, escalating the unprovoked trade war he has been waging against America’s northern neighbor since returning to power last year.
In a Monday post on Truth Social, Trump accused Ottawa of “ripping off the United States of America for years” with what he described as “ridiculously high tariffs on our Farmers and farm products” that have allegedly “made life impossible” and “created a 60 Billion Dollar Deficit between our two Countries.”
He added that the trade deficit, which he alleged was at least $60 billion, was “not sustainable” and said he’d impose a 50 percent tariff “on all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and Steel” starting on January 1, 2027. He also remarked that Canada would not be “treated like a state” even though Canada is treated like another country that has had a free trade agreement with the United States for years — one that Trump’s first administration negotiated.
“On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US! They do 95% of their business with the U.S., with us, the exact opposite,” he said.
The president’s claim that Canada taxes American agricultural imports at an unfair rate is not accurate because the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement negotiated during his first term permits such tariffs on products that exceed import quotas as a way of protecting their domestic industries — the same way the U.S. protects domestic agricultural industries.
His threat of new 50 percent taxes on auto imports comes just a day after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a speech that Ottawa had “worked intensively and in good faith” towards a renewed trade deal with Washington, only to see Trump’s negotiators “ask too much and offer too little.”
In the televised address, Carney noted that Trump’s justifications for the ever-increasing tariffs on Canadian goods have shifted countless times since Trump returned to the White House and started the unprovoked trade war, “from fentanyl to taxes on U.S. tech giants, to certification of U.S. aircraft, to the sharing of tolls of a bridge that Canada built and paid for, to our dairy policy, to provincial decisions to not sell American alcohol during a trade war, to a television advertisement that quoted Ronald Reagan, to smoke from wildfires.”
Carney also implied that Ottawa could retaliate by cutting off energy supplies to America and pointed out that Trump’s claim of a trade deficit was based on statistics that include the massive amount of energy purchased from Canada by U.S. consumers, to the tune of “99 percent of their natural gas imports, 85 percent of their electricity imports, 60 percent of their crude oil imports.”
“I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy,” he said.
The former Bank of England head said there had previously been “important progress” towards a deal that would have been “mutually beneficial” to both the U.S. and Canada until last week, when Washington’s negotiators pushed for new terms that would have been “uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits to Canada, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”
He added that the latest from Washington had laid bare the fact that the Trump administration is not committed to a true “economic partnership” with Canada and noted that he had ordered his negotiators to return home at that point.
Carney’s veiled threat to cut off energy exports was echoed by Ontario premier Doug Ford, who said on Monday that Trump had underestimated Canadians’ willingness to tolerate U.S. pressure rather than to give in to Trump’s bluster and accused the American leader of having “"declared war, economic war against his closest friend and ally."
Ford added that nothing has been ruled out to counter the American tariffs, including cutting off supplies of electricity and critical minerals from Ontario to the United States.
"We power 1.5 million homes and businesses," Ford said. "Everything's on the table. I'll do whatever it takes."
In response, Trump blasted the Ontario leader on social media, writing that the U.S. “has been carrying Canada for decades, but no longer” and vowing that America “will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada.”
“Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive — It’s where they get all of their money and, because of their current bad leadership, primarily Governor Carney, and his Flunky, Ford, they will not be allowed to keep taking advantage of the United States — their key to survival,” he said.
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