By Mark Tanos
President Donald Trump wants to increase tariffs on Canada to punish America’s northern neighbor for fouling our skies with wildfire smoke.
Trump said Friday on Truth Social that the cost of the pollution drifting south should be tacked onto the duties the U.S. already imposes on Candada. He accused the country’s government of “willful negligence” and wrote that the expense “must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.”
The U.S. collects tariffs from American importers, not foreign governments or companies, though in some cases exporters “eat” the tariffs by charging U.S. buyers lower prices.
Early in his second term, Trump kicked off a trade war with Canada by imposing tariffs as high as 35% on nearly all goods from that nation, though both sides have since deescalated. Around 80% of imports from Canada are currently duty free under the USMCA agreement, which the U.S. recently declined to renew, triggering a 10-year sunset period while leaving the door open for renegotiation.
In his Truth Social post, the president Canada for neglecting its forests and said the failure had left the United States “unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” He pledged to call Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday for an explanation.
Trump did not specify how the extra charge would work or whether he would open a formal trade case, Fox News reported. (RELATED: New York, 17 Other States Under Air Quality Alert As Canada’s Wildfires Rage)
The president’s compaint comes after days of foul air across the Midwest and Northeast. Detroit ranked as the world’s most polluted major city on Friday afternoon, with Chicago and Washington close behind, according to Time. On Thursday, Toledo, Milwaukee and Detroit all logged readings above 500 on the Air Quality Index, well above the 300-point level at which conditions qualify as hazardous.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on X that his agency had contacted Canadian leaders and would “strongly encourage them to do everything in their power to extinguish these fires as fast as possible.”
Asked about the American criticism, Carney told reporters, “Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States,” the Guardian reported. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Washington could offer help rather than blame. “Maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help,” Ford said, according to the outlet.
Close to 900 blazes burned across Canada as of Friday, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported. Mark Cochrane, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, told the outlet the smoke turns so heavy because the fires smolder instead of flame, burning through peat soil in the boreal forest as inefficiently as the glowing tip of a cigarette.
Forecasters expect the haze to thin by Sunday after a rougher Saturday, according to Time.
