Prime Minister Trudeau: "Trump's Tariff Goal Is Canadian Economy Collapse Followed by Merger"

"Claim of Fentanyl Tariff Is Completely Fabricated and False"

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau strongly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on the 4th (local time), saying that Trump's enforcement of a 25% tariff was aimed at collapsing the Canadian economy to merge it with the United States.

At a press conference that day, Prime Minister Trudeau said, "His (President Trump's) excuse, claiming it is a fentanyl tariff, is completely fabricated, without any legitimacy, and an outright lie."

He stated, "What he wants is the complete collapse of the Canadian economy," adding, "Because that would make it easier to merge us."

Until now, President Trump has referred to Canada as the 51st state of the United States and called Prime Minister Trudeau a 'governor.'

The United States implemented a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico starting at midnight that day, and imposed an additional 10% tariff on top of the existing 10% tariff on China, totaling a 20% additional tariff. The White House explained that this measure was to crack down on the influx of the opioid painkiller fentanyl into the U.S.

Regarding this, Prime Minister Trudeau said that in Canada's case, the fentanyl issue is just an excuse for the U.S. to impose tariffs.

President Trump announced additional retaliatory tariffs in response to Canada's countermeasures that day. Canada decided to impose a 25% retaliatory tariff on U.S. imports worth a total of 155 billion Canadian dollars (approximately 156 trillion won), and among these, tariffs were immediately imposed from that day on imports worth 30 billion Canadian dollars (approximately 30 trillion won).

On his social networking service (SNS) Truth Social, which he created, President Trump said, "Tell Justin Trudeau, the governor of Canada, to explain," adding, "If he imposes retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., our mutual tariffs will immediately be raised to the same level." This also implied that the mutual tariffs announced globally on April 2 could be immediately applied to Canada.