Trudeau calls for calm in face of Trump's tariff threat

Canadians need to remain calm in the face of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Halifax on Monday.

"One of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic," Trudeau told an audience at the Halifax Chamber of Commerce 

"Knowing that yes, these [tariffs] would be absolutely devastating means we have to take them seriously. We have to be thoughtful and strategic, not go around making our opponent's arguments for him, but making our arguments in a significant and united way."

Trump has said he will impose the 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods if Canada does not tighten border security to combat fentanyl smuggling and illegal migration.

"I"m a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word ... It's going to make us rich," Trump said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press that aired on Sunday.

Watch | Canada must not 'panic,' Trudeau says as he lays out argument against U.S. tariffs: 

Canada must not ‘panic,’ says Trudeau as he lays out argument against U.S. tariffs

3 days ago

Duration 2:16

While speaking to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that Canada will have a response to U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s possible 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. Trudeau added that the government is still working out how it will respond.

CBC News and Radio-Canada reported earlier Monday that, according to several sources, the Trudeau government could spend in excess of $1 billion to protect the Canada-U.S. border in an effort to allay Trump's concerns. 

Two sources familiar with the matter told Radio-Canada that the government's intention is to announce the new border plan by Christmas, a few weeks before Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

"We know a few things about Donald Trump," Trudeau said in Halifax. "We know that when he says these things, he means them."

The prime minister said Trump also has a pattern of attempting to "destabilize a negotiating partner" to inject "a bit of chaos into the well-established hallways of democracies and institutions."

"This time's going to be different. It's going to be a little more challenging," Trudeau said of Trump's second term.

"They're coming in with a lot clearer set of ideas of what they want to do right away than they had last time, but we can do this. We can do this because when crises happen, when we are challenged as a country, we step up."

Trudeau said that while the tariffs would "be devastating for the Canadian economy" and lead to "horrific losses in all of our communities for everyone," it also would mean hardship south of the border.

"Americans import 65 per cent of their crude oil from Canada, significant amounts of electricity," Trudeau said. 

"Just about all the natural gas exported from Canada goes to the United States. They rely on us for steel and aluminum. They rely on us for a range of agricultural imports. All of those things would get more expensive."

Pointing out that Trump was elected on a promise to make life more affordable, Trudeau said American tariffs, coupled with Canadian retaliation, will only increase the cost of living for Americans.

"We will, of course, as we did eight years ago, respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways and we're still looking at the right ways to respond," Trudeau said. 

When the United States slapped import tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in 2018, Canada retaliated by imposing $16.6 billion in tariffs on U.S. products, including ketchup, ballpoint pens, licorice, orange juice, whisky and toilet paper. 

The strategy was to target U.S. imports to Canada that would cause pain in electoral districts held by key Republicans. 

Trudeau said that in 2018 that strategy helped convince Trump to remove tariffs because Canada carefully targeted the president's party and colleagues.