Lame duck Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will respond to Donald Trump‘s tariffs – which went into effect at 12:01am Tuesday – with some of their own.
Trump on Thursday promised to push ahead with plans to impose punishing tariffs on Mexico and Canada because he said drugs are still pouring into the U.S. from those countries.
Trudeau, who will leave office at some point this year after announcing he will not seek re-election, confirmed his country will fight fire with fire.
Canada will impose 25 percent tariffs on over $100 billion worth of U.S. goods for as long as the American tariffs remain in place.
It matches the 25 percent surcharge on goods from the border countries that will go into effect on March 4, Trump reiterated in a post on his Truth Social website Monday.
Canada will also place 10 percent tariffs on the country’s energy. The tariffs will begin taking effect in three weeks.
‘Let me be unequivocally clear – there is no justification for these actions,’ Trudeau said in a statement.
His actions follow Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s promise to also cast tariffs on Canadian goods.
Trudeau defended against Trump’s fentanyl claims, saying that less than one percent of the substance intercepted at the border comes from Canada.
He noted that fentanyl seizures from Canada have gone down 97 percent in the span of a month from December 2024 to January 2025 after appointing a ‘Fentanyl Czar’ and launching other measures.
‘Our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. trade action is withdrawn, and should U.S. tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures,’ he said.
Trudeau reached out to the Trump administration to stop the tariffs but said that his country will stand up ‘for our economy, our jobs, our workers, and for a fair deal.’
‘Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs. Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term,’ he said.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump said earlier Monday he would impose an extra 10 percent duty on Chinese goods on March 4, doubling the tariff levied at the start of this month.
‘Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,’ Trump posted on his social media site.
‘A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China.’
Trump had delayed the tariffs after Canada and Mexico said they were taking border security seriously.
And in other cases, Trump has used the threat of charges to get his foreign policy way.
But he used his Truth Social post to say that time was running out.
‘We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,’ he wrote.
‘China will likewise be charged an additional 10 percent Tariff on that date.’
His comments go some way to clarifying what he said a day earlier during his first meeting of the new Cabinet at the White House.
Then he seemed to suggest that the tariffs could be delayed for a month.
But other officials said that was for another tranche of tariffs, ‘reciprocal tariffs,’ matching duties imposed by other countries.
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC that Trump would decide on his ‘tariff policy for all countries’ after a review expected on April 1.
The prospect of escalating tariffs and trade wars has already sent jitters through the global economy.
Consumers say they fear rising prices and are pessimistic about the economic outlook.
Canadian and Mexican officials are due to meet Trump administration counterparts in on Thursday and Friday to try to head off any additional tariffs.
Trump has taken an adversarial, often mocking attitude toward Canada since winning in November, with Trump suggesting he wanted to make the US’ northern neighbor the 51st state.
