‘Very dumb thing to do’: Trudeau on US tariffs as he announces retaliatory measures

In a press conference on Tuesday (Mar 4), Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian goods “a very dumb thing to do”.

Trudeau said, “Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do. We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.”

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The Canadian PM said that he would challenge the “illegal actions” by the US at the World Trade Organisation, saying they violate the free trade agreement between the two countries.

Canada imposes retaliatory tariffs

Canada has already imposed retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of US goods and threatened to impose more levies on the remaining $125 billion worth of goods in 21 days.

“Our tariffs will remain in place until the US tariffs are withdrawn, and not a moment sooner. And should these tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures, measures which will demonstrate that there are no winners in a trade war,” the prime minister said.

“We have laid out extensive plans, actions, cooperations, including as recently as the past days in Washington, and they have always been very well received, and the numbers bear that out,” Trudeau said.

‘He wants to see total collapse of Canadian economy’

“I think in what President Trump said yesterday, that there is nothing Canada or Mexico can do to avoid these tariffs, underlines very clearly what I think a lot of us have suspected for a long time, that these tariffs are not specifically about fentanyl, even though that is the legal justification he must use to actually move forward with these tariffs.”

A day earlier, Trump declared America had no further negotiating space for a trade agreement because of Mexico's inability to stop fentanyl narcotics from entering the United States.

“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that will make it easier to annex us, is the second half of his thought. Now, first of all, that’s never going to happen. We will never be the 51st state, but yeah, he can do damage to the Canadian economy, and he started this morning,” Trudeau said.

Warning to Americans

Warning Americans that they will suffer in the trade war as well, the prime minister said, “As American families are going to find out, that’s going to hurt people on both sides of the border. Americans will lose jobs, Americans will be paying more for groceries, for gas, for cars, for homes, because we have always done best when we work together.”

He added, “So we are, of course, open to starting negotiations on the customer review, but let us not fool ourselves about what he seems to be wanting.”

(With inputs from agencies)