In his meeting at the White House with recently elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, US President Donald Trump expressed his intention to maintain the taxes applied on Canada, including the 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and reiterated the need to revise the USMCA agreement.
Since the first implementation of Trump’s worldwide taxes, the US president has conducted negotiations with the head politicians of other countries to find common ground and has lifted tariffs in some cases. However, claiming that “the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants threaten the country,” Trump maintained his strong stance on Canada and reiterated his claim that it should be part of the US. Trump also repeated his past claims that Canada is not an integral part of the US economy, contrary to what Carney believes.
In March, Canada’s exports to the US dropped by 6.6 percent during the month while imports from the US fell by 2.9 percent amid growing public discontent towards the US. However, this decline was almost entirely offset by a significant rise of 24.8 percent in exports to countries other than the United States. Analysts are stating that the full effects of the tariffs have yet to be seen.