American President Donald Trump denied Tuesday that his threat of drastic tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico was intended to force rapid trade renegotiations, insisting he was responding to “massive” flows of fentanyl and migrants into the states -United.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s tactic was aimed at restarting negotiations on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which replaced NAFTA during Trump’s first term as president, before it was revised in 2026. The report cites people familiar with Trump’s thinking.
Asked about the report at an unrelated news conference at the White House, Trump said his threat of 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico, which he said would “probably” take effect on February 1, had “nothing to do with” CUSMA.
“They have allowed – both of them, and Canada as well – they have allowed millions and millions of people into our country who should not be here,” he said. “They could have stopped them and they didn’t.
“The fentanyl that passes through Canada is massive. The fentanyl moving through Mexico is massive. And people are being killed and families are being destroyed.
Trump also said his administration was considering imposing a 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China on Feb. 1 “based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.”
Trump has already said he wants to reopen CUSMA when it comes under review to close loopholes that Canadian and U.S. officials say are being exploited by China to enter the North American auto market through Mexico.
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The president signed an ambitious executive order on trade policy Monday that included an instruction to the U.S. Trade Representative to begin public consultations “in preparation” for the planned 2026 CUSMA review, to assess the impact of the trade agreement on American agricultural workers and producers “and to make recommendations”. regarding the participation of the United States in the agreement. The order sets April 1 as the deadline for this report and other trade policy reviews.
Trump has long linked his tariff threat to concerns about human and drug trafficking into the United States from Canada and Mexico.
Ottawa sought to address these issues by a detailed border security plan last week, but Trump continued to repeat his claims. He called Canada a “very bad abuser” of the U.S. border shortly after his inauguration Monday.
Speaking outside the Liberal cabinet retreat in Quebec earlier Tuesday, Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s envoy to the United States, pushed back on Trump’s rhetoric.
“These are not words that Canada would use to talk about our closest friend and ally,” she told reporters.
“When it comes to our border, Canadians know the facts: there is no criminal trafficking of fentanyl into the United States from Canada, we account for less than 1 percent of all illegal crossings.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it seized more than 5,000 kg of illegal drugs at the Canadian border in the last fiscal year, between October 2023 and September 2024. This included 19.5 kg of fentanyl, an increase of more than 200% compared to the previous two years. .
This figure pales in comparison to the 9,570 kg of fentanyl seized at the US-Mexico border during the same period, which also saw 316 kg seized at coastal and inland checkpoints in southern states.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, two milligrams of fentanyl constitutes a potentially lethal dose.
Migrant encounters at the northern border, meanwhile, totaled 23,731 people during the last fiscal year, more than double the previous year, although the number of monthly encounters has declined sharply since last June. More than 1.5 million migrants were encountered at the southern border last year.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Trump made several references to imposing tariffs on other U.S. allies and trading partners, such as the European Union. He has often claimed that tariffs would increase government revenue that would be used to reduce costs for Americans, even though economists say prices of tariffed products would increase for American consumers and also correct trade deficits.
“That’s the only way to get equity,” he said. “You can’t get equity without it.”
Trump also reiterated his claims, which experts call “absurd,” that California can “turn the valve” and bring water flowing from Canada to the Pacific Northwest. Water management experts I said the infrastructure didn’t exist for that.
“They have all this water, and it’s very good water in the high places in the Pacific Northwest,” Trump said. “Some come from Canada – a beautiful country, by the way.”
Trump said he would issue an executive order “demanding that they immediately let this water flow to California farmers, even to people living in Beverly Hills.”
Hillman said the border is just “one of the core issues” Trump is focused on, alongside economic “fairness” and “energy dominance,” which Canada wants to work on with states. -United.
“It’s a border that has two sides,” she said. “We also have things we want to talk to them about, about how we manage our border. This is what we need to pay attention to.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier Tuesday he favors imposing “matching” retaliatory tariffs if Trump carries out his tariff threat.
“I support the principle of dollar-for-dollar matching rates. “That’s something we’re absolutely going to look at if that’s how they move forward,” he told reporters outside the cabinet retreat.
—with files from Saba Aziz of Global
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