The President of the United States, Donald Trump, increased his war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, alluding to the Rocky negotiations while Canada seeks to de-escalation an increasing trade war.
Trump turned to his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday to give his version of a noon phone call he held with Trudeau.
“The call ended in a” a little “friendly way,” said Trump, without offering details.
The republican chief, however, cornered Trudeau to do too little to combat fentanyl trafficking, according to experts in question, he is a minor concern along the Canadian border.
Trump has also openly questioned the role of Trudeau in the next federal elections of Canada, trying to raise questions about the legitimacy of his government, as he did with other world leaders.
Pressure on prices
High-level negotiations come one day after Trump has imposed 25% prices on products from Canada and Mexico, the two largest trade partners in the United States, not to mention its neighbors.
These high prices have been imminent on both countries for some time.
Shortly after winning the presidency in November, Trump announced that he planned to take advantage of the 25% prices to force Canada and Mexico to tighten their borders.
He also mentioned that Canada could avoid such astounding prices by giving up its sovereignty and becoming the 51st state in the United States.
After taking office on January 20, Trump set a date in early February so that the prices take effect. But Canada and Mexico have proposed compromises that have enabled the prices to be delayed, in order to avoid damage to their savings.
For Mexico, this meant sending 10,000 troops from the National Guard to its border with the United States. For Canada, the compromise has taken the form of a list of measures, including the creation of a “fentanyl tsar” and a working group to suppress drug trafficking.
But the delay expired on Tuesday, and the American rates have since entered into force.
Canada and Mexico immediately responded with their own reprisal rates, marking the burst of the emerging trade war.
“The Canadians are reasonable and we are polite. But we will not back up a fight. Not when our country and everyone’s well-being are at stake, ”Trudeau said on Tuesday.
He warned that the savings of the three countries would be injured by a commercial impasse.
Already, steep import rights have shaken several industries, and the “three large” of American car manufacturers – Ford, Stellantis and General Motors – managed to have asked Trump for a month’s exemption from prices on Wednesday.
Canada, on the other hand, sought to negotiate the end of the trade war with the Trump administration, while lodging a complaint against steep prices with the World Trade Organization.
He argued that the prices violated a free trade agreement concluded during Trump’s first mandate, the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement.
Fact on fentanyl
In his social truth job Trump on Wednesday, underlined the fentanyl of illicit drugs as a collision point in the tariff negotiations.
“Justin Trudeau, Canada, called me to ask me what could be done on prices. I told him that many people died of fentanyl who went through the borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing convinced me that it stopped, “wrote Trump.
“He said it was improving, but I said,” It’s not good enough. “”
But the experts wondered if the focus on fentanyl on the Canadian border was moved, given the relatively tiny quantities crossing the United States from the North.
Canada itself called the prices “unjustified“. He stressed that the US government statistics indicate that the quantity of fentanyl seized along the shared border in the countries is less than 1%.
According to the customs and American border protection website, only about 19.5 kilograms (43 pounds) were confiscated at the northern border of the country for the year 2024.
This exceeds a total of more than 9,934 kg (21,900 pounds) seized when arriving in the United States that year.
However, Wednesday, Trump blame Trudeau for “weak border policies” who are “responsible for the death of many people”.
And his administration was on the defensive against the accusations that he invented a problem in order to justify his prices.
On Wednesday, during a drop in press, the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, was unleashed against a journalist who questioned Trump’s motivations and noted that the quantity of fentanyl arriving from Canada could integrate into a “hand luggage suitcase”.
“You ask me what the president’s justification is for these prices. It’s not up to you to decide. You are not the president, ”replied Leavitt. “Frankly, I think it’s a bit disrespectful towards the families of this country who have lost dear beings in the hands of this deadly poison.”
Question Canada’s elections
Addressing the CBC the National TV show on Tuesday, Canada Minister of Finance Dominic Leblanc said his government had worked to avoid prices and that he is committed to dialogue with his American counterpart, the secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick.
But Leblanc stressed that no compromise would be accepted, except the complete repeal of prices. He called on the United States to “return to comply with the free trade agreement”.
“We are not interested in a kind of price reduction,” said Leblanc. “We want the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico to be respected, and we will continue to work with the United States government on issues once the prices are raised.”
“It does not meet someone in a way halfway or does not reduce the prices,” he added. “We want Canadian goods and services to be able to enter the United States without a price.”
But Trump himself used the prices as a mechanism to put pressure on the Canadian government to give in its sovereignty and join the United States.
Trump expressed several times during his second mandate, an expansionist desire to develop an American territory abroad, in particular by “recovering” the Panama Canal, something he reiterated in a joint speech at the American Congress on Tuesday.
Trump on Wednesday, Trump called Trudeau as “governor”, a title used for the leaders of the American states.
He also tried to stimulate questions about the legitimacy of Trudeau’s power, writing in conspiratorial terms on the next federal elections of Canada.
“He couldn’t tell me when the Canadian elections took place, which made me curious,” Trump wrote about Trudeau. “Like, what’s going on here?” I then realized that he tries to use this problem to stay in power. Good luck Justin!
Trump has a story to question the legitimacy of other leaders. In February, he called another elected official, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Ukraine, a “dictator” for not having organized elections in wartime. Ukraine is currently repelling a large -scale invasion of Russia.
Trump’s efforts to Saper Trudeau, however, may have stimulated the opposite effect.
After years of monitoring the Conservative Party of Canada in the polls, the Liberal Party of Trudeau experienced a resurgence of popularity – something that experts have credited, in part, to a reaction against Trump.
Trudeau should resign as leader of the Liberal Party on March 9, with the election of his replacement.
Canada must hold a federal election no later than October 20, although the Liberal Party can open a vote before that.
