President Trump has made a variety of faulty claims about Canada prior to now week as he imposed new tariff hikes at the nation and touted his plans for extra.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump imposed a blanket 25% tariff on international metal and aluminum, considerably impacting Canada, the biggest international provider of those metals to the U.S. An extra 25% tariff on maximum Canadian items is ready to enter impact on April 2.
Mavens warn those hikes may result in will increase in client costs, however Mr. Trump has justified them partly via announcing he is protective American producers and incentivizing Canada to crack down on drug crime.
Then again, in interviews and social media posts, Mr. Trump has exaggerated the dimensions of the united statestrade deficit with Canada and the quantity of fentanyl coming over the northern border. The president additionally misrepresented Canada’s price lists on U.S. dairy and lumber merchandise.
Here is a breakdown of a few of these claims:
Trump’s deceptive declare that Canada has price lists above 200% on U.S. dairy merchandise
President Trump mentioned March 7: “In Canada, we discover that they are charging us over 200% for dairy merchandise… And after I left, we had that neatly sorted, however below Biden they only saved elevating it.”
Main points: President Trump has instructed Canada unfairly put price lists of over 200% on American dairy merchandise all through President Biden’s time period, however the degree has been unchanged since prior to Biden took administrative center.
The over 200% price lists on U.S. dairy merchandise are most effective brought about if U.S. dairy exports exceed sure annually duty-free limits, and U.S. dairy producers say they’ve by no means been with reference to exceeding those limits.
Moreover, those price lists have been negotiated all through the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement, which Mr. Trump signed all through his first time period. Canada’s printed tariff lists for 2020 and 2025 display price lists on U.S. dairy merchandise have remained unchanged from the tip of his first time period in the course of the finish of President Biden’s time period. As an example, each lists display the similar tariff price of 245.5% for any cheese merchandise above the duty-free prohibit.
Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman advised advised CBS Information the dairy price lists are in position to “offer protection to our farmers and households.” Canada is the second-largest importer of U.S. dairy, buying about $1.1 billion value in 2024.
The U.S. offered more or less double the quantity of dairy to Canada as Canada offered to the U.S. ultimate yr, in line with business knowledge from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Trump’s deceptive declare that Canada has a “enormously top tariff” on lumber whilst the U.S. fees “a tiny fraction of that”
President Trump mentioned March 7: “They have got a enormously top tariff, provide the actual numbers in a short while popping out, on lumber. So, they promote us lumber, they’ve an amazing tariff. They make it unimaginable for us to promote lumber or dairy merchandise into Canada, however our numbers are a tiny fraction of that, nearly non-existent.”
Main points: On March 4, Canada imposed a tariff of 25% on softwood lumber from the U.S., a price this is top in comparison to fresh historical past.
However Mr. Trump didn’t point out those price lists are a part of Canada’s reaction to the 25% levies on maximum Canadian items, together with lumber, that the Trump management first of all introduced in early March, which are actually anticipated to take impact on April 2.
Ahead of this business escalation, Canada had imposed 0 price lists on U.S. softwood lumber for years, in line with Dustin Jalbert, a senior economist at Fastmarkets who covers wooden merchandise.
“It is undoubtedly true that presently there are price lists in position, however that used to be no longer the case prior to the kickoff of the business warfare. Those are retaliatory to what the U.S. instigated, if you’ll, in early March,” Jalbert mentioned.
The U.S. had prior to now positioned tasks on imported softwood lumber, with price lists on Canadian lumber emerging from 8% to fourteen.5% in 2024.
Trump’s false declare that the U.S. has a $200 billion business deficit with Canada
President Trump mentioned March 13: “On the subject of Canada, we are spending $200 billion a yr to subsidize Canada.”
And on Feb. 26 he mentioned: “The price lists will make it unimaginable for them to promote lumber or anything into the US. And all I am asking to do is destroy even or lose just a little bit, however no longer lose $200 billion.”
Main points: Mr. Trump has again and again exaggerated the U.S.-Canada business deficit, claiming it is as massive as $200 billion.
If truth be told, the U.S. business deficit in items and services and products with Canada in 2024 used to be nearer to $35.7 billion, in line with the newest business knowledge launched from the U.S. Census Bureau on March 6. That business deficit narrowed from $40.6 billion in 2023.
For items by myself, the U.S. purchased $70.6 billion extra in items from Canada than it offered in 2024, down from $72.3 billion in 2023.
The overpowering driving force of the deficit with Canada is that the U.S. buys a large number of unrefined oil from the rustic, in line with Julian Karaguesian, a lecturer on the division of economics at McGill College.
“Numerous Canadian economists say if you’re taking out power, Canada is working a small deficit with the US,” Karaguesian mentioned.
Trump’s deceptive declare that giant quantities of fentanyl come from Canada
President Trump mentioned in his deal with to Congress March 4: “A lot has been mentioned over the past 3 months about Mexico and Canada, however we now have very massive deficits with either one of them. However much more importantly, they’ve allowed fentanyl to return into our nation at ranges by no means observed prior to, killing masses of hundreds of our voters.”
Main points: Mr. Trump has cited Canada‘s failure to halt the go with the flow of illicit medication as a explanation why for enforcing price lists, announcing that fentanyl has been coming from the rustic “at ranges by no means observed prior to.” He claimed, “The fentanyl coming thru Canada is huge.”
Then again, Mr. Trump overstates the quantity of fentanyl coming around the northern border. In 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized 43 kilos of fentanyl on the U.S.-Canada border, accounting for more or less 0.2% of all fentanyl seized via CBP that yr. Against this, roughly 21,100 kilos — about 96.6% of the whole — used to be seized on the southern border.
Kara Fellows and
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