Sorry to say but that's already been walked back on after Canada committed $1 billion dollars for extra northern border security and it made no difference in the tariffs discussions.
- According to CIS, the number of Canadian crime groups producing synthetic drugs doubled between 2023 and 2024
- There's a lack of Canadian agents who are tasked at preventing this and current legislations make it very inefficient between federal and provincial law agents
- There's an upward trend in Fentanyl seizures in Canada the last 2 years
- Fentanyl is now being produced domestically in Canada
All of that is within the control of Canada with better policies.
Let’s put it into perspective, because those numbers don’t give a baseline for what the problem is. Also they don’t necessarily have anything to do with trafficking.
Last year there were 45 lbs of fentanyl intercepted crossing into the US from Canada. Thats a backpack. There’s 500x as much coming from Mexico.
It’s unrealistic to expect that zero fentanyl will come into the US from Canada, and until that happens we will tariff all trade with them.
Zero fentanyl is a fantasy and will never be achieved. That thing is way too small and can be carried around too easily*
Tariffs are just a lever to get things done on the international front.
Canada has been neglecting security for a long time, so it's a wake-up call, and it's not a bad thing to put this out publicly to change things.
CBSA only inspects about 4% (some sources say even 1%) of all containers that ship in Vancouver. Quebec-Vermont* border control has been a joke for years.
Sure, Trump is using all kind of tricks to put pressure against his trade partners to secure some wins that will solidify him as a change agent to boost America, which will appeal to his electoral base. At the same time, it may actually bring good results to the US economy, bringing major investments in the country and negotiating better trade deals.
You may not agree with the means to get there, but you can't deny there's an argument to be made about his "America first" policies and why it could benefit the average people in the long run.
So therefore that allows the President to go back on a trade agreement he personally signed in his last term? I'm not going to disagree Canada should do more about reducing Fentanyl, nor that Canada can't control it with better policies. I am not clear on why this allows the United States to go back on agreements and allows the President to threaten with tariffs that seem to change weekly.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-border-patrol-canada-u... <- discussion of commitment from Canada
https://financialpost.com/news/trump-says-tariffs-on-canada-... <- as of today (sorry for FT source but this is literally all across google you can just googla USA tarrifs)