Trump tariffs would be ‘blow’ to US allies Canada and Mexico, experts say

President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to hit goods from Mexico and Canada with 25% tariffs when he returns to the White House on Monday could strain trade relations among the three nations, experts said during an online forum.

“We have to start from the premise that the application of 25% tariffs against all products from Canada and Mexico is a huge blow to the USMCA [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement] and a huge blow to our confidence in the U.S. as an ally,” Steve Verheul, Canada’s chief trade negotiator from 2017-2021, said during the Thursday forum hosted by the Wilson Center in Washington.

The Wilson Center is a nonpartisan policy forum that examines global issues. The forum was titled “USMCA 2026 Review: New Realities and Strategic Shifts in North American Trade.”

Verheul, a principal at Toronto-based GT & Co. Executive Advisors, was Canada’s chief negotiator for the USMCA trade pact, which went into effect in July 2020.

“This is a very aggressive action, and we are going to have to respond, from Canada’s perspective. Probably our most effective levers are going to be in the resource sector, whether it’s critical minerals, whether it’s oil and gas,” Verheul said. “But the way it looks to us is that the U.S. is going to put much stronger barriers against Canada in the U.S. market than they are to China and Venezuela and others. Does the U.S. really want to start buying these essential resources from those countries, as compared to Canada? Who has been a loyal ally to the U.S. throughout all of this, and from Canada’s perspective, we’re far bette…

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