Montreal, Canada:
US President Donald Trump has mentioned his looming tariffs on Canadian items are essential to pressure motion on the migrants and medicines coming into the USA by means of its northern border.
He has additionally described billions of {dollars} in each day cross-border commerce as a US subsidy and claimed Canada wouldn’t be “viable as a rustic” with out it.
Based on Trump, Canada’s financial dependence on the USA is without doubt one of the causes it ought to develop into the 51st US state.
AFP fact-checked a number of the president’s claims about Canada, which embrace misrepresentations about bilateral financial relations and the state of affairs on the border.
US provide of Canadian imports
Trump has claimed that Canada will get 95 % of its “product” from the USA.
For Canada’s imported items, that determine is inaccurate, in keeping with Statistics Canada.
In 2024, 62.2 % of Canada’s complete imports got here from the USA, the federal company mentioned.
However, as College of Toronto economist Joseph Steinberg famous, “a number of what Canadian customers purchase is produced domestically,” so Trump’s 95 % declare can solely be credibly scrutinized whether it is assumed he was speaking about imports.
“If we… give attention to imports, does the US account for 95 %? Not fairly, though it’s a actually excessive quantity,” Steinberg mentioned.
Statistics Canada additionally reported 75.9 % of the nation’s exports went to the USA final yr.
US commerce deficit
In the course of the question-and-answer portion of his January World Financial Discussion board look, Trump claimed the USA had a $200 billion or $250 billion commerce deficit with Canada.
“That is an inflated quantity,” Steinberg mentioned.
The USA Commerce Consultant and the US Census Bureau put the commerce deficit with Canada at $63.3 billion on the finish of 2024, whereas Statistics Canada reported its surplus with the USA as Can$102.3 billion ($70.3 billion).
However commerce deficits usually are not subsidies and the info doesn’t affirm that the USA is propping up Canada’s economic system, Steinberg mentioned.
“Worldwide commerce is a mutually helpful transaction,” he mentioned. “The USA pays Canada for merchandise, it would not pay Canada for these merchandise if it did not really feel that it was price it on this case.”
US oil purchases from Canada are a principal driver of the commerce deficit, he added.
American banks in Canada
“American banks usually are not allowed to do enterprise in Canada,” Trump mentioned in a social media submit final month.
That declare can be false.
International banks, together with American monetary establishments, are regulated by Canada’s federal Financial institution Act.
“There are 16 US-based financial institution subsidiaries and branches with round Can$113 billion in property at present working in Canada,” the Canadian Bankers Affiliation mentioned in a February 3 assertion on X.
These embrace JP Morgan Chase, CitiBank and Financial institution of America, which have workplaces in most main Canadian cities.
Border safety
The Trump administration has mentioned enhancing border safety is a central concern in its relations with Canada.
Trump has claimed that undocumented migrants and the drug fentanyl are flowing throughout the border in giant numbers.
Kelly Sundberg, a criminologist at Mount Royal College in Calgary, mentioned there isn’t any proof to again up Trump’s claims on fentanyl, as information exhibits lower than one % of the killer opioid that enters the USA got here from Canada.
Based on the USA Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) company, out of over 21,800 kilos (9,900 kilograms) of fentanyl intercepted by brokers in the course of the 2024 fiscal yr, 43 kilos was seized close to the northern border with Canada.
CBP information additionally reported US border patrol brokers apprehended 23,721 individuals illegally crossing the Canadian border in fiscal yr 2024.
Nationally final yr, CBP brokers got here into contact with greater than 1.5 million undocumented migrants.
“Canada is underneath better risk from the USA than the USA is from Canada for many issues — weapons, medication (and) unlawful immigrants,” Sundberg mentioned.
He mentioned extra relaxed drug legal guidelines in Canada may mission an inflated sense of illicit substances coming into the USA.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)