Trump annexation threats a distraction from damage tariffs will cause to U.S. economy: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CNN on Thursday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s annexation threats are a distraction from the damage a trade war with Canada would have on the American economy.

Trump has been taunting Trudeau online, calling him Governor Trudeau, and hinting that Canada is destined to become the 51st state.

Trudeau, who was in Washington Thursday to attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, stopped into the CNN newsroom to address the looming threats that have created much anxiety north of the border.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Trudeau said of Canada being absorbed into the United States. “Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we are not American.”

Trudeau theorized that Trump knows his threat of slapping a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian products would ultimately hurt American consumers and businesses, and his incessant blustering about taking over Canada is a smoke screen.

“What I think is happening in this is President (elect) Trump, who is a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that conversation, to take away from the conversation about 25 per cent tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and concrete and everything that American consumers buy from Canada that is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs.”

Trudeau, who announced plans to step down as Liberal leader and Prime Minister after a successor is chosen in a leadership race, says he tried to reason with Trump when they met for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November.

Trump’s tariff threat came in response to border concerns, but Trudeau says he tried to stress to Trump, to no avail, that Canada is not the problem.

“What I spoke with him about in Mar-a-Lago is that less than one per cent of migrants into the U.S. and less than one percent of fentanyl into the U.S. comes from Canada.”

Despite those assurances and new moves to bolster border security, Trump has persisted on the tariff threats, and has upped the ante with comments about Canada becoming a part of the United States, something he threatened to make happen through “economic force.”

“We don’t want to see tariffs on our side, or on your side,” Trudeau told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s bad for people who have for generations made things together and been successful together to actually start creating barriers between economies like ours.”

If the tariffs are imposed, Trudeau vowed that Canada would retaliate and both sides would suffer.

“We would definitely respond as we did years ago when President Trump put tariffs on steel and aluminum, we responded by putting tariffs on Heinz ketchup, on playing cards, on bourbon, on Harley Davidson, on things that would hurt American workers, but we don’t want to do that because it drives up prices for Canadians and harms our closest trading partner.”