Canada must ‘shut off’ critical minerals to U.S. to counter Trump: Singh – National

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Canada must ‘shut off’ critical minerals to U.S. to counter Trump: Singh – National

The NDP wants to stop critical mineral exports to the United States in response to Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs on Canada, party leader Jagmeet Singh said Monday.

“I’m calling on all political leaders to support turning off the taps on those critical minerals. Let’s stop the flow of those critical minerals into the States. There’s no quicker way to get Donald Trump to back away from tariffs,” Singh said while speaking to reporters in Ottawa.

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according to data from Natural Resources Canada. In 2023, Canada exported 59 per cent of its mineral exports to the U.S.

The total value of the critical minerals trade with the U.S. was $38.2 billion, a drop of 10 per cent from 2022, with $29.8 billion of that made up of Canada’s critical minerals exports to the U.S.

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Forty per cent of Canada’s critical mineral imports come from the U.S.

Singh said trying to “wine and dine” with Trump would not help Canada’s case, appearing to reference visits by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“Donald Trump is not rational. You can’t discuss a plan over a meal with him. He is a bully and bullies understand one thing, that is strength. They also understand pain. So if he wants to pick a fight with Canada, we have to make sure it’s clear that it’s going to hurt Americans as well.”

Singh did not rule out supporting broad-based tariffs in the future, but said Canada’s approach needs to be “strategic.”

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“We need to look at a step-by-step response that meets the tariffs in kind,” he said.

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0:53
Trudeau responds to Trump’s 51st state remark, calls it a ‘distraction’

Retaliatory tariffs likely

Experts say a proportional response from Canada to whatever is imposed by Trump is looking likely.

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“For sure we’re going to have tariffs imposed on us by the Trump administration. The question now is how long will they last? Canada’s probably going to retaliate because they need to be seen to be doing something,” Moshe Lander, an economist at Concordia University, told Global News last week.

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The 2024 fall economic statement, tabled in December 2024 after Trump made his threat of tariffs, said Canada’s international trade policy will focus on reciprocity, which “will be considered as a requirement for all federal spending and policies.”

Jack Cunningham, assistant professor at Trinity College at the University of Toronto, said last week that Canada has many cards it could play and retaliate with “relative ease,” but said the key is to make sure Canada’s own economy isn’t hurt in the process.

He said while the logic of tariffs is to minimize damage to one’s own economy, that is challenging to do with the deep U.S.-Canada trade ties.

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2:12
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“Neither of us can harm the other without harming ourselves because the economies are so interdependent,” he said.

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Cunningham said Ottawa could let political logic, instead of economic logic, dictate what to put tariffs on.

“We could look at where a tariff or an export tax would hit the U.S. economy hardest and hit U.S. industries in states where Trump is popular,” he said.

Lander said Ottawa could target products from Republican-leaning states.

“Where is Trump at his weakest? You’re going to want to hit the products in the regions that have the greatest support for Trump. You don’t want to go after the coasts,” he said.

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