US President Donald Trump has again found a way to blow up the trade markets before the brokers' morning coffee.
This time the target is not China or EC, and Washington's largest economic partner is Canada. In a post on social media, Trump reduced the trade integration of the two countries to an ultimatum: either move your factories to the US or the tariffs will destroy you.
With 70% of Canada's exports going to the US, according to Statistics Canada.
"Not all Canadian companies that do business with America will immediately move to the United States", he wrote in his Truth Social. "When you come back, there will be no MITA!"
In a separate post, Trump claims that Canadian businesses are already "being ripped off" to the US, but it is not clear which companies or if there are any at all, according to local media.
The worst country
In his typical eccentric tone, the American president writes that Canada is the "worst" country for business rights. "I don't want Canadian cars, I don't want Canadian parts, I don't want anything Canadian", he adds.
To understand how it got here, we need to rewind the tape a little. Trump's trade pressure has never been directed at just one country.
The northern neighbor has always been in his sights because of the huge trade, the Great Lakes automotive cluster and the protected Canadian dairy market.
ΠIn 2025, Trump threatened heavy tariffs, he froze them with 90-day pauses with hope for concessions. My patience has clearly run out. The government has been using Section 388 of the Tariff Act since the distant 1930s.
This is an archaic instrument, unused for decades, which allows the president to slap tariffs of up to 50% on countries he deems to be "discriminating" American business.
The result is a 50 percent tariff on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. dollars, covering over 550 products - from cement to the iconic hockey sticks for Canada, according to the AR.
From January 1, 2027, a 50% tariff will also be imposed on all Canadian cars, trucks and auto parts.
The absurdity of "Lake America"
The conflict has gone beyond the scope of the current customs war and entered the zone of pure geographical absurdity. You might remember that the American president before "precedes" The Gulf of Mexico to Americans.
In addition, he has stated many times that Canada should be the 51st state.
ΠA few days ago, Trump went so far as to sign a symbolic executive order, which also renamed the shared Lake Ontario to "Lake of the Americas".
The order has legal force only for Americans Maps, but Google Mars has already changed its name for US users.
ΠOntario Premier Doug Ford erected a giant billboard on the shore with the inscription "Lake Ontario - now and forever" and called President Trump's actions "absurd".
Ford warned that if the blockade continues, the US "will not get a grain of sand", the SBS reported. This could put a stop to the flow of nickel and uranium to the American industry.
According to the analysis, Canadian visits to American cities have fallen by more than 40% year-on-year, and travel spending to the southern neighbor has decreased by 3.3 billion dollars by 2025.