He Likes to Keep People Off Balance: Trudeau on Trump's 51st State Threat

Vancouver: Canada's outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday suggested that US President-elect Donald Trump's remarks about Canada becoming America's "51st state" has distracted attention from the harm that steep tariffs would inflict on US consumers.

Trump has threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports.

"The 51st state, that's not going to happen," Trudeau said in an interview with MSNBC. "But people are talking about that, as opposed to talking about what impact 25 per cent tariffs (has) on steel and aluminium coming into the United States." Trudeau told MSNBC, "No American wants to pay 25 per cent more for electricity or oil and gas coming in from Canada. That's something I think people need to pay a little more attention to." Trump has also said that if Canada merged with the US, taxes would decrease and there would be no tariffs.

"I know that as a successful negotiator he likes to keep people off balance," Trudeau said of Trump's threats to use economic force to turn Canada into the 51st state. Trump has also erroneously cast the US trade deficit with Canada -- a natural resource-rich nation that provides the US with commodities like oil -- as a subsidy.

Canadian officials say that if Trump follows through with his threat of punishing tariffs, Canada would consider slapping retaliatory tariffs on American orange juice, toilets and some steel products. Already during Trump's first term in the White House, Canada responded to Trump's tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium with its own on American products like bourbon, Harley Davidson motorcycles and playing cards.

"He got elected to try and make life easier for all Americans, to support American workers," Trudeau said of Trump. "These (tariffs) are things that are going to hurt them." Trump said last week that the US doesn't need oil, or anything else, from Canada. But almost a quarter of the oil that the US consumes each day comes from Canada. The energy-rich western province of Alberta exports 4.3 million barrels of oil a day to the US.

Data from the United States Energy Information Administration shows that the US consumes 20 million barrels a day, and produces about 13.2 million barrels a day.

Canada, a founding partner of NATO and home to more than 40 million people, is also the top export destination for 36 US states. Nearly USD 2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

Trump has said that he would reconsider his tariff threat if Canada made improvements in managing security at the Canada-US border, which he and his advisers see as a potential entry point for undocumented migrants.

Trudeau has said that less than 1 per cent of illegal immigrants and fentanyl cross into the US from Canada.

But after a meeting last November with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect's private club and residence in Florida, Trudeau announced an increase in spending on border security, expressing willingness to address Trump's concerns in hopes that he would reconsider his tariff threat.

With the challenge of Trump's second administration looming and Trudeau's party trailing badly in the polls, the beleaguered Canadian prime minister announced his resignation last Monday. He will be replaced on March 9, when his Liberal party is set to pick a new leader. 

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