Canadian lawmaker Jagmeet Singh proposed that Canada should “fight back” towards President Donald Trump and Tesla founder Elon Musk with new tariffs targeted at the Tesla founder.
Trump told reporters on Monday that he would soon announce 25% tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports into the U.S. and also plans to announce “reciprocal tariffs” – or tariffs directed at countries that impose duties on U.S. exports.
“Very simply, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said to reporters. “If they are charging us 130%, and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not going to stay that way.”
“Every country will be reciprocal,” he added.
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Trump’s announcement ruffled feathers in Canada, causing the New Democratic Party leader to single out Musk.
“Elon Musk has been very loud. Very vocal attacking our country. We’re not going to let that stand. So if you are going to take a shot at us, we’re going to fight back,” Singh told reporters. “So Elon Musk thinks he can tweet off whatever he wants. Yeah, we’re going to put a tariff on him. I want that to be something that impacts him.”
CNN host Boris Sanchez spoke to Singh on Monday, asking about how Canadians feel about Trump’s talk of bringing Canada in as the 51st state. Singh noted that Canadians are known for being polite, but warned, “don‘t take our kindness for weakness” and said “hell no” to the proposal.
When asked about how he might approach Trump differently than current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Singh argued that he would “fight back” against economic “bully” tactics.
“I believe in being good neighbors and having good relationships, but I believe very firmly Donald Trump only understands force. He‘s acted as a bully in many circumstances, and now he‘s acting as an economic bully. The only language that bullies understand is the language of strength. So we have to show that we‘re ready to fight back,” Singh replied. “We might be smaller. We might be up against a larger opponent, but it‘s going to hurt both of us. It‘s a bad thing to do. It‘s going to hurt Americans. It‘s going to hurt Canadians. We need to show that it‘s the wrong thing to do, and also show that we‘re ready to fight back and defend what we have.”
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He added how he would do “dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs” and that Trump had started this fight. Included in his plan to hit back, would be to target Musk specifically, because of his comments about Canada becoming the 51st state.
“We just announced today what I would do is put in place a 100% tariff on Tesla, directly targeting Elon Musk. Elon Musk is proudly touting this idea of the 51st state, so let‘s hit back at Elon Musk,” Singh argued. “I‘ve also said we should shut down the supply of critical minerals. Another move that directly targets Elon Musk and his Tesla company, the batteries that he needs require these critical minerals. We‘ve got tools, and we should be ready to use them.”
He added, “It’s not something that we wanted to do, but if Donald Trump wants to bring this fight, know that we are ready. I’m putting Donald Trump on notice.”
