Posthaste: 5 charts that challenge Trump's trade tirades about Canada
Donald Trump is saying a lot about the United States’ trading relationship with Canada that some economists say is just plain wrong.
Canadians thought the country had escaped the new president’s ire when he failed to launch a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico to the U.S. on the first day of his administration. But before Jan. 20 was out, Trump identified Feb. 1 as the day when the tariff hammer could fall.
He went after Canada again on Thursday during a video call with attendees of the World Economic Forum.
“We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We’re not going to have that anymore,” he said. “Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years and it’s not fair that we should have a $200 billion-$250 billion deficit. We don’t need them to make our cars … we don’t need their lumber … we don’t need their oil and gas.”
Here are five charts that counter Trump’s many claims about Canadian trade with its neighbour.
Trump has claimed on various occasions that the U.S. has a “massive” trade deficit with Canada, meaning Canada exports more to the U.S. than it imports.
“Canada is the largest export market for the U.S. and makes up one of the smallest trade deficits, owing largely to U.S. demand for energy-related products,” Toronto-Dominion Bank said in a research paper.
The U.S. shortfall with Canada will likely come in at around US$45 billion in 2024, when final figures are available, making it the “second-smallest” deficit compared with other trading partners, including China and Mexico, TD said. The U.S. recorded deficits with those countries of US$192 billion and US$130 billion, respectively, as of the third quarter of 2024.
As many economists have pointed out, were it not for energy, the U.S. would
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