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President Trump had one huge query on his thoughts as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney headed to Washington final week.
“I very a lot need to work with him, however can not perceive one easy TRUTH,” Mr. Trump mentioned in a social media post, reiterating a number of of the way he believes Canada advantages unfairly from its commerce relationship with United States.
The president additionally repeated his incorrect declare that the USA is “subsidizing” Canada to the tune of $200 billion, alluding to the nation’s trade deficit with Canada, which is the worth of what the USA imports minus its exports.
The truth is, the commerce deficit final yr was $63.3 billion, in line with U.S. information. And if Canada’s power exports had been stripped out, it turns right into a commerce surplus.
For Mr. Trump, all of it boils down to 1 level: does the USA want Canada?
Mr. Trump’s resounding reply is not any, and he has imposed tariffs on many Canadian items.
“We don’t want their Automobiles, we don’t want their Vitality, we don’t want their Lumber, we don’t want ANYTHING they’ve, aside from their friendship,” he mentioned within the social media put up.
However business teams and authorities say in another way.
The U.S. wants Canada to make vehicles
The auto industries in Canada and the USA have change into extremely interconnected over the past three a long time — particularly between Detroit, Mich., and Windsor, Ontario, the busiest business crossing alongside the border — because the nations knocked down commerce obstacles.
So intertwined are the availability chains that automobile components can cross the border as many as eight instances throughout the manufacturing course of. That has made it troublesome to outline what constitutes an auto import.
In 2023, the USA imported about 1.24 million automobiles from Canada, the fourth-highest tally behind Mexico, Japan and South Korea.
The U.S. wants Canada’s power
The USA is the world’s prime oil producer, however a lot of its refineries rely partially on heavy crude oil, a spread that Canada makes a speciality of extracting. Retooling U.S. refineries to eliminate the need for crude oil would cost billions and corporations will not be prepared to make these investments, particularly due to the uncertainty over Mr. Trump’s commerce insurance policies.
Sixty p.c of the crude oil imported from the USA in 2022 got here from Canada, in line with the U.S. Vitality Data Administration.
Moreover oil, Canada, in 2023, equipped practically 100% of the pure fuel and 85 p.c of {the electrical} power imported by the USA, in line with Canada’s power regulator. Canadian electrical energy is very vital to powering New England.
Canada additionally extra supplies greater than one-fourth of the uranium the USA imports to run nuclear reactors, federal data exhibits, the next share than another nation.
The U.S. wants Canada’s lumber
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. commerce secretary, is investigating whether or not lumber imports are a threat to national security.
In 2021, the latest yr figures had been obtainable, the USA bought $28 billion price of lumber from Canada, representing practically half of lumber imports.
American business teams have estimated that the tariffs on lumber that Mr. Trump has launched will enhance residence prices by a mean of about $9,000.
For now, the USA lumber business can not meet the demand from residence builders, in line with a current analysis by Fastmarkets, a analysis firm, and it could take the nation not less than 10 years to whittle down its want for imported lumber.
U.S. farmers want Canada to plant their crops
Farmers kicking off the planting season this yr had been reminded of the U.S. agriculture business’s reliance on Canadian imports of key chemical components utilized in fertilizer, just like the potassium-rich minerals referred to as potash.
The USA imports 85 p.c of its potash from Canada, which is the world’s largest exporter of the minerals.
However Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canada will make potash costlier for farmers to import and the will increase could possibly be handed right down to grocery retailer buyers, in line with the Fertilizer Institute, a U.S. business group. The subsequent largest international exporters of potash are Russia and Belarus.
Trump says the U.S. wants Canada’s friendship. Many Canadians say neglect about it.
The normally heat relationship between the 2 nations is in tatters, with Canada invoking a defensive tactic utilized in hockey — “elbows up” — as its posture in opposition to Mr. Trump’s financial assaults and threats to make Canada a U.S. state.
Canadians have taken to boycotting American-made products and shirking summer time journey to the USA, with the variety of flights scheduled to the nation from Canada down by 21 p.c, a New York Times analysis shows.
A unusual image of the nations’ particular bond has additionally suffered. The USA has restricted Canadian entry to the Haskell Free Library and Opera Home, a historic website that straddles the border between Quebec and Vermont. American officers mentioned the transfer was essential to cease “drug traffickers and smugglers.”
Regardless of the frosty relations, Mr. Carney and Mr. Trump had a cordial trade in entrance of reports media cameras within the Oval Workplace final week.
Mr. Trump s described his “love” for Canada and need for continued friendship. Nonetheless he repeated his need for Canada to change into a part of the USA.
Mr. Carney shortly pushed again to clarify that his nation was not on the market.
Mr. Trump didn’t relent: “By no means say by no means!”
