Trump’s Tariffs Are Coming and Will Include Oil, Alberta Premier Warns

Canadians should be prepared to face US tariffs once Donald Trump assumes the presidency next week, with no exemptions for oil, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith warned after meeting the president-elect in Florida.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Robert Tuttle

Published Jan 13, 2025  •  1 minute read

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(Bloomberg) — Canadians should be prepared to face US tariffs once Donald Trump assumes the presidency next week, with no exemptions for oil, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith warned after meeting the president-elect in Florida. 

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The conservative leader of Canada’s main oil-producing province met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an interview on MSNBC that Canada will respond with counter-tariffs against the US if Trump follows through on his threat to impose a 25% levy on Canadian goods. 

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“We do need to be prepared that they are likely to come in on Jan. 20,” Smith said at a news conference on Monday. “I haven’t seen anything that suggests that he’s changing course.”

Trump has given different reasons for threatening tariffs on Canada. Initially, he said they would be imposed unless the country better secured its border with the US — prompting Canada to announce a C$1.3 billion ($901 million) plan to address his concerns. More recently, he has claimed Canada is “subsidized” by the US due to a trade deficit and threatened to use “economic force” to make the country the 51st US state.  

More than half of US crude imports come from Canada, most of it from Alberta, which sells it at a discount to West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for American oil. Asked whether Canada could curb energy supplies to the US, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told CTV News: “Everything is on the table.”  

Threats to cut off oil are “empty” and would spark a national unity crisis, Smith said. “We won’t stand for that and you should never, ever threaten something you cannot do,” she said, noting that a key pipeline — Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 — runs through the US and supplies refineries in Ontario and Quebec with western Canadian crude.

—With assistance from Randy Thanthong-Knight.

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