Canada is clamping down on border control as the threat of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump looms.
The U.S.’s biggest trading partner has launched a crackdown on fentanyl crossing the U.S.-Canada border after Trump threatened to place taxes as high as 25 percent on Canadian imports.
Why It Matters
Canada is the closest and largest U.S. trading partner, but the relationship has come under strain since Trump’s election. The president has threatened the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, in an attempt to curb the influx of migrants and drugs across U.S. borders. Canada’s move represents a win for Trump’s rhetoric in motivating allies to do what he has demanded.
Americans largely support the president’s mass deportation plans. A poll carried out by The New York Times and Ipsos from January 2 to 10 found that 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such plans. Eighty-eight percent supported “deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records.”
What To Know
Canada has deployed new measures along the border with the U.S. to signify how seriously they take Trump’s threats.
Canadian border patrols are now making use of Black Hawk patrol helicopters, a new fleet of drones, and dogs in an attempt to stop fentanyl from being smuggled into the U.S.
The new policies have accompanied an aggressive political campaign, with Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly visiting Washington D.C. to speak with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the issue of the border and geopolitics.
File photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office at the White House on February 13, 2017, in Washington, D.C. File photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office at the White House on February 13, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Getty Images
While the move appears to cater to Trump’s demands that America’s neighbors take the border more seriously, Canadian leadership has remained strong-willed in rhetoric, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatening that “everything is on the table” for retaliation if the U.S. does decide to go ahead with the new administration’s tariffs.
“If the American administration moves forward with its plans on tariffs, it will first and foremost hurt American citizens and American consumers, but it will also hurt Canadians,” Trudeau, who is soon to depart as prime minister, said in January.
Mexico has made similar moves to appease Trump, with a new group of workers making efforts to dismantle a 300-meter-long tunnel used to smuggle migrants across the border with Texas.
What People Are Saying
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters in Washington D.C. on Wednesday: “We’re making the contacts to clearly show what we’re doing. The secretary of state understands the relationship between trade and geopolitics. It is important that we work together and that we not be divided in a world where there’s so much geopolitical competition, particularly when it comes to China.
The U.S. Department of State said in a statement after the meeting: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly today in Washington, D.C. to discuss how the United States and Canada can collaborate on shared global challenges, such as secure borders and energy security. Secretary Rubio commended Canada for confronting the CCP’s coercive and unfair economic practices. The Secretary and Minister Joly also reaffirmed cooperation to enhance safety and prosperity for both countries.”
What Happens Next
The Canadian government, along with Mexico, is continuing to explore how its relationship with the new administration will look. President Trump has not confirmed if he will make good on his threat to impose tariffs on either country.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.
Um die besten Erfahrungen zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn Sie diesen Technologien zustimmen, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Die Nichteinwilligung oder der Widerruf der Einwilligung kann bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
