How far could Trump go using 'economic force' to try and annex Canada?
financialpost.comU.S. president-elect Donald Trump suggested he would use “economic force” to annex Canada at a press conference this week, marking an escalation in the string of threats and jibes he has made against the country since his election.
“You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump said at his Mar-a Lago home in Florida on Tuesday. “Canada and the United States, that would really be something.”
Trump ruled out the use of military force against Canada — something he seemingly left on the table when it comes to Greenland and the Panama Canal, two of his other recent targets — saying that instead he would stick to economic means to intimidate America’s northern neighbour into becoming the 51st state.
But just how far he might be willing to go on the economic front remained unclear. Most of the focus since his re-election has been on Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, but the U.S. has numerous other tools at its disposal when in comes to inflicting economic pain — many usually reserved for its worst enemies.
“There’s no limit to what he can do,” said trade lawyer Mark Warner, a principal at MAAW Law, noting that an important constraint on Trump would be the impact of any measure on American consumers.
Fen Osler Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University and co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations, said that outside of tariffs, the U.S. could attempt to cap the price it pays for energy or other resources coming from Canada.
For example, G7 countries put a cap on Russian oil, which reduced foreign currency flows into Russia and lowered the value of the ruble,
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