President Trump has made a number of inaccurate claims about Canada in the past week as he imposed new tariff hikes on the country and touted his plans for more.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump imposed a blanket 25% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum, significantly impacting Canada, the largest foreign supplier of these metals to the U.S. An additional 25% tariff on most Canadian goods is set to go into effect on April 2.
Experts warn these hikes could lead to increases in consumer prices, but Mr. Trump has justified them in part by saying he’s protecting American manufacturers and incentivizing Canada to crack down on drug crime.
However, in interviews and social media posts, Mr. Trump has exaggerated the size of the U.S.trade deficit with Canada and the amount of fentanyl coming over the northern border. The president also misrepresented Canada’s tariffs on U.S. dairy and lumber products.
Here’s a breakdown of some of these claims:
Trump’s misleading claim that Canada has tariffs above 200% on U.S. dairy products
President Trump said March 7: “In Canada, we find that they’re charging us over 200% for dairy products… And when I left, we had that well taken care of, but under Biden they just kept raising it.”
Details: President Trump has suggested Canada unfairly put tariffs of over 200% on American dairy products during President Biden’s term, but the level has been unchanged since before Biden took office.
The over 200% tariffs on U.S. dairy products are only triggered if U.S. dairy exports exceed certain yearly duty-free limits, and U.S. dairy manufacturers say they have never been close to exceeding these limits.
Additionally, these tariffs were negotiated during the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Mr. Trump signed during his first term. Canada’s published tariff lists for 2020 and 2025 show tariffs on U.S. dairy products have remained unchanged from the end of his first term through the end of President Biden’s term. For example, both lists show the same tariff rate of 245.5% for any cheese products above the duty-free limit.
Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman told told CBS News the dairy tariffs are in place to “protect our farmers and families.” Canada is the second-largest importer of U.S. dairy, purchasing about $1.1 billion worth in 2024.
The U.S. sold roughly double the amount of dairy to Canada as Canada sold to the U.S. last year, according to trade data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Trump’s misleading claim that Canada has a “tremendously high tariff” on lumber while the U.S. charges “a tiny fraction of that”
President Trump said March 7: “They have a tremendously high tariff, give you the exact numbers in a little while coming out, on lumber. So, they sell us lumber, they have a tremendous tariff. They make it impossible for us to sell lumber or dairy products into Canada, but our numbers are a tiny fraction of that, almost non-existent.”
Details: On March 4, Canada imposed a tariff of 25% on softwood lumber from the U.S., a rate that is high compared to recent history.
But Mr. Trump did not mention these tariffs are part of Canada’s response to the 25% levies on most Canadian goods, including lumber, that the Trump administration initially announced in early March, which are now expected to take effect on April 2.
Before this trade escalation, Canada had imposed zero tariffs on U.S. softwood lumber for years, according to Dustin Jalbert, a senior economist at Fastmarkets who covers wood products.
“It’s certainly true that right now there are tariffs in place, but that was not the case before the kickoff of the trade war. These are retaliatory to what the U.S. instigated, if you will, in early March,” Jalbert said.
The U.S. had previously placed duties on imported softwood lumber, with tariffs on Canadian lumber rising from 8% to 14.5% in 2024.
Trump’s false claim that the U.S. has a $200 billion trade deficit with Canada
President Trump said March 13: “In the case of Canada, we’re spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada.”
And on Feb. 26 he said: “The tariffs will make it impossible for them to sell lumber or anything else into the United States. And all I’m asking to do is break even or lose a little bit, but not lose $200 billion.”
Details: Mr. Trump has repeatedly exaggerated the U.S.-Canada trade deficit, claiming it’s as large as $200 billion.
In fact, the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services with Canada in 2024 was closer to $35.7 billion, according to the latest trade data released from the U.S. Census Bureau on March 6. That trade deficit narrowed from $40.6 billion in 2023.
For goods alone, the U.S. bought $70.6 billion more in goods from Canada than it sold in 2024, down from $72.3 billion in 2023.
The overwhelming driver of the deficit with Canada is that the U.S. buys a lot of unrefined oil from the country, according to Julian Karaguesian, a lecturer at the department of economics at McGill University.
“A lot of Canadian economists say if you take out energy, Canada is running a small deficit with the United States,” Karaguesian said.
Trump’s misleading claim that large amounts of fentanyl come from Canada
President Trump said in his address to Congress March 4: “Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens.”
Details: Mr. Trump has cited Canada’s failure to halt the flow of illicit drugs as a reason for imposing tariffs, saying that fentanyl has been coming from the country “at levels never seen before.” He claimed, “The fentanyl coming through Canada is massive.”
However, Mr. Trump overstates the amount of fentanyl coming across the northern border. In 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the U.S.-Canada border, accounting for roughly 0.2% of all fentanyl seized by CBP that year. By contrast, approximately 21,100 pounds — about 96.6% of the total — was seized at the southern border.
Kara Fellows and
Emma Li
contributed to this report.
