As Trump’s trade war begins, his team links his tariff agenda to drug trafficking

WASHINGTON — As market turbulence rattled some Washington lawmakers, U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest advisers fanned out to TV news programs Tuesday to claim a link between economywide tariffs on Canada and Mexico and fentanyl trafficking.

“This is not a trade war, this is a drug war,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC. “Hopefully they understand that.”

The president’s executive order hitting Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs, with a lower 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy, took effect Tuesday.

Trump pushed ahead with the levies using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA), a national security statute that gives him authority to control economic transactions, after he declared an emergency on fentanyl at the northern border.

But U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows only a small volume of fentanyl crosses illegally into the United States from Canada. It reports just 13.6 grams of fentanyl seized by northern Border Patrol staff in January.

Lutnick was asked whether fentanyl is being used as an pretext to hit Canada with levies. He replied that Trump launched a study on tariffs, which concludes April 2, and claimed Canada’s general sales tax is a tariff.

Lutnick also said Trump wants to see “material reduction” in opioid deaths.

Trump was on social media soon after, claiming there would be no tariffs on companies that move their operations to the U.S. and repeating the false claim that Canada doesn’t allow American banks to operate in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday the U.S. had launched a “dumb” continental trade war and Canada has been forced to push back. Canada is introducing immediate 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of American products, and will expand them to cover another $125 billion in U.S. goods in 21 days.

“Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!” Trump responded on social media.

While Trump did not mention the scourge of fentanyl in any of his social media posts, his closest allies repeated those claims. Vice-President JD Vance told reporters on Capitol Hill that “Canadians have not been serious about stopping the drug trade.”

“People will sometimes say, ‘Well if you look at the numbers, the Mexicans send way more fentanyl into the United States then the Canadians do.’ The Canadians have allowed a lot of fentanyl to come into the country,” Vance said. “It’s not a defence to say more has come from Mexico.”

Vance said Trump will have conversations with “the Canadians.”

Ottawa rapidly boosted resources at the border after Trump made his original tariff threat. Canada named a new “fentanyl czar,” listed Mexican cartels as terrorist groups and launched a Canada-U.S. joint strike force.

Canadian law enforcement agencies have been publicly proclaiming drug busts.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed some anxiety about the duties Tuesday. The Republican from agriculture-heavy South Dakota told Fox News that he sees the tariff issue through a different lens than the president.

“I think that the tariffs are, in my view, a means to an end – not the end itself,” he said. “And hopefully it’s something that can be temporary in nature.”

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said she’s “very concerned” about the tariffs going into effect because of her state’s proximity to Canada.

“Maine and Canada’s economy are integrated,” Collins said, adding that much of the state’s lobsters and blueberries are processed in Canada and then sent back to the U.S.

Democrat Minority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s tariffs will make everything more expensive for Americans.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Schumer said tariffs can be useful tools when implemented precisely, but it makes no sense to start a trade war with America’s closest partners.

International trade lawyer Tim Brightbill said the Trump administration is trying to accomplish many different things with a flurry of tariff announcements – “all without harming the economy.”

Trump returned to the White House in January with a tariff agenda bent on upending global trade. He ordered 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States on March 12, which the White House has confirmed would stack on top of the other duties imposed on Canada.

Trump signed an executive order to implement “reciprocal tariffs” starting April 2. Other tariff targets include automobiles, copper, lumber and agricultural products.

“It may be possible to do all of this, but it’s a tremendously difficult balancing act,” Brightbill, a partner at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, said in a media statement.

“And with so many types of tariffs being announced and put in place, and others potentially on the way, we are in uncharted territory.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2025.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press