Trump says it’s ‘fine’ after Ford threat to cut energy to border states
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump was asked about Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s recent warning that the province could cut off energy exports to about 1.5 million Americans if Trump lays threatened tariffs on Canada next month, saying Thursday it was “fine.”
On Wednesday, following a meeting between premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ford said he believed there was a “100 per cent” chance 25-per-cent tariffs threatened by Trump would be imposed in January on Canada. Ford countered with a threat of his own: to “cut off” millions of American residents living in border states from Ontario’s energy exports.
“That’s OK if he does that, that’s fine,” Trump told a CNBC reporter on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. “The United States is subsidizing Canada, it’s truly a subsidy and we shouldn’t have to do that.”
Trump claimed the U.S. subsidizes Canada more than US$100 billion a year, though he did not specify where that number came from and made similar remarks in 2018.
Subsidiesare defined by the International Monetary Fund as “a transfer of resources from a government to a domestic entity without an equivalent contribution in return.”
The IMF notes subsidies can “take many forms, including direct grants to domestic companies, tax incentives, or favorable terms for financing.”
It’s not clear if Trump’s claims relate to trade deficits, which is when a country buys more than it sells to another country, or direct investment, either.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says that “the U.S. goods and services trade deficit with Canada was $53.5 billion in 2022.”
Statistics Canada says that direct investment from Canada into the U.S. in 2023 was $1.1 trillion while U.S. direct investment in Canada was $618.2
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