President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on Canada in a sit-down with Fox News.
“People don’t realize Canada’s very nasty to deal with,” he told the network in an interview aired Sunday. “There’s been things going on that we don’t like and things going on where they took advantage.”
The president then claimed Canada imposes tariffs of “almost 400 percent” on dairy products.
“They charge our farmers up to 400 percent, almost 400 percent on certain products and certain, you know, things,” Trump said Sunday. “Our farmers want to send … they have to pay 200, 300, 400 percent. People don’t know that. Canada’s a very tough country to deal with, I will say that.”
His remarks followed questions from host Maria Bartiromo about comments he made Friday, when he said he would be suspending trade talks “immediately” as the Canadian government moves toward enforcing a 3 percent “digital services tax” on big tech companies.
Relations between the U.S. and Canada have deteriorated since Trump took office in January, with both countries levying tariffs on each other’s goods amid the president’s trade war.
Trump has repeatedly trolled Canada, floating the idea of making the country the 51st state and referring to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor.”
Canada indeed imposes high tariffs on certain dairy products, with a 245.5 percent levy on cheese and 298.5 percent on butter—but only if imports of those goods from the U.S. exceed a predetermined quota.
Below those thresholds, American sales of dairy products to Canada are subject to no tariffs. U.S. exports currently fall vastly short of the threshold. In 2024, sales were 73 percent below it, according to data from lobbying group the International Dairy Foods Association.
Trump said in March the matter had been “well taken care of” during his first stint in the White House, but that “under [Joe] Biden, they just kept raising it.”
However, the current levy regime actually came into effect under the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Trump signed and touted at the time as “the best trade deal ever made.”
This point didn’t appear to pass Bartiromo by.
“You have USMCA in place,” she told the president.
“USMCA’s no good if they cheat,” he shot back. “Hopefully, we’ll be fine with Canada. I love Canada. Frankly, Canada should be the 51st state, okay? It really should. Canada relies… because Canada relies entirely on the United States. We don’t rely on Canada.”
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