In a White House transcript of President Donald Trump’s remarks made on Wednesday, February 26th, the president announced tariffs against all Canadian goods would come into effect early next month.
In a vague statement, President Trump said that Wednesday, April 2nd would be the day that tariffs against Canada would come into effect.
“I have to tell you that, you know, on April 2nd — I was going to do it on April 1st, but I’m a little bit superstitious, so I made it April 2nd — the tariffs go on, not all of them but a lot of them,” said Trump.
“And I think you’re going to see something that’s going to be amazing. We’ve been taken advantage of as a country for a long period of time. We’ve been tariffed, but we didn’t tariff. Now, I did. When I was here, I tariffed.”
Initially, these tariffs were supposed to be imposed by Trump in early February, but after a phone call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the president said he would delay the tariffs by 30 days.
Then earlier this week, on Monday, February 24th, Trump said the tariffs were “on time” for a March 4th implementation. Now he has said April 2nd will be the day they come into effect.
His messaging as to why these tariffs are being imposed has not always been consistent, but in his remarks this Wednesday, he upholds that they are to stop the flow of fentanyl from coming through Canada as well as Mexico.
However, it has been determined that less than 1% of fentanyl in the United States came through the Canada border.
“We’ve lost millions of people due to fentanyl. It comes mostly from China, but it comes through Mexico, and it comes through Canada,” stated the President.
A reporter asked President Trump if the decreased travel through the Canadian and Mexican borders have been enough of a deterrent to stop the threatened tariffs—given that border crossings have decreased by 90% since this time last year—to which the president said no.
“No, no. I’m going to — I’m not stopping the tariffs, no. Millions of people have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border,” said Trump.
He also reiterated that the only way for Canada to avoid tariffs is to become the 51st state of the United States, which no politician has deigned an option in the slightest.
Prime Minister Trudeau has yet to make an official response to the new date Trump is threatening to implement these tariffs.
