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As U.S. Tariffs Become Reality, Canadians Prepare for Economic Pain

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As U.S. Tariffs Become Reality, Canadians Prepare for Economic Pain

The trucks that carry about $300 million worth of auto parts each day over the bridge from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit are still rolling as usual. But in the aftermath of President Trump’s decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on most categories of Canadian exports, the mood in Windsor, like all of Canada, was transformed.

Mr. Trump’s move has ignited a sense of economic anxiety and anger among Canadians about how they are being treated by their neighbor, ally and best customer. Most are still puzzling over Mr. Trump’s motivations and objectives for the tariffs, as well as his comments about annexing Canada as the 51st state.

And as they turned their attention to getting the potentially crippling tariffs, and a 10 percent levy on Canadian oil and gas and some minerals, lifted, politicians, business people and ordinary Canadians say that the relationship between the two countries will never return to what it once was.

Flavio Volpe, the head of a Canadian auto-parts maker trade group, said that his members could start shutting down factories in days, and that he feels betrayed by the United States.

“We’ve built two societies on the same values,” said Mr. Volpe, who is also a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations. “The man in the White House did a U-turn and drove right over us.”

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Mr. Trudeau and anxious business leaders throughout Canada said that their country’s focus must be on ending the tariffs as quickly as possible.

Most forecasts project that Canada’s export-dependent economy will be sent into a recession, although they differ on timing and its initial severity.

“We have a limited experience for this magnitude of a trade shock,” the Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest financial institution, said this week. Some Canadians reached back for comparison to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930, which raised the average U.S. import duty to a staggering 59.1 percent. Many economists believe that they worsened the Great Depression, but the two countries’ economies were far less integrated at that time.

Aside from oil and gas, Canada’s largest export sector is the auto industry. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump suggested that the only way out of tariffs for the sector is to move all of its production to the United States. Aside from abandoning a skilled work force, that would require billions of dollars in new investments.

Historically, automotive trade has been largely balanced between the United States and Canada. Parts often swirl around between Canada, the United States and Mexico, sometimes crossing borders repeatedly before winding up in vehicles in a dealer’s showroom.

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Mr. Volpe, of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’​ Association in Canada, said that, aside from the tariffs, trade remained unchanged on Tuesday, an assessment backed up by the usual migration of trucks to the Ambassador Bridge.

The 25 percent tariffs are being paid by the importers, either other parts makers or automakers. Most contracts allow an automaker to deduct tariffs it pays when settling a parts company’s bill.

Mr. Volpe said that those deductions will make parts suppliers, which have generally have single-digit profit margins, instantly and deeply unprofitable.

He expects that most of his members can cover those losses from their cash reserves for about a week. After that, they will be forced to stop shipments.

“No one is going to burn up their cash reserve for the president of the United States,” he said.

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For more parts, automakers usually have no alternative suppliers, let alone ones in the United States. Setting up new suppliers would take time and substantial investment. The result, experts say, will be a parts shortage that rapidly cascades into assembly-line shutdowns. Thousands of workers in Canada, the United States and Mexico would be left idle.

Some industries began idling small numbers of workers before the tariffs came into effect.

Bill Slater, the president of a United Steelworkers local in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, said that Algoma Steel laid off about 20 of his members who are salaried employees, citing the tariffs. He said that a number of probationary hourly workers were also let go by the mill.

Truck drivers had a mixed experience. Stephen Laskowski, the president of the Ontario Trucking Association, said that some had a surge in business as companies moved to get products into the United States before the tariffs came into effect, while others were laying off drivers because customers were canceling shipments.

Canada’s forestry industry knows tariffs all too well. Special U.S. duties on softwood lumber go back decades and were a factor in Canada seeking the 1989 free trade agreement with the United States, which was later expanded to include Mexico. (Canada has repeatedly failed to get an exemption from the U.S. trade complaints system that imposes the softwood lumber tariffs.)

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But Kurt Niquidet, the president of the British Columbia Council of Forest Industries, said that adding the 25 percent tariff “really puts us into unprecedented territory.”

Lumber mills in the western province are facing a dizzying array of tariffs. This week’s 25 percent tariff is on top of a 14.4 percent tariff that the U.S. government expects to raise this summer, to more than 27 percent. Then Mr. Trump announced last weekend that he’s opened an investigation into lumber imports that could result in even more tariffs.

While the United States supplies about 70 percent of its own lumber, Mr. Niquidet, an economist, said that American forests and mills cannot replace all the lumber from Canada, nor can it be sourced from other countries.

“There will still be imports from Canada,” he said. “Prices in the U.S. will rise.” Some Canadian lumber mills, however, may not survive the trade assault, he added.

While Mr. Trudeau speculated that Mr. Trump was seeking a “total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” Mr. Volpe said he was not sure it’s that complicated. “If it looks like he is dismantling the structure of the postwar economy, then he is,” Mr. Volpe said. “What are you going to do about it?” Some Canadians believe that their country is simply being used as part of Mr. Trump’s plan to fund substantial U.S. tax cuts with tariffs.

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Jean Simard, the president of the Aluminum Association of Canada, fought a successful battle over the 10 percent tariff on Canadian exports of the metal Mr. Trump enacted in during his first administration. Now Mr. Simard is attempting to fend off additional tariffs that Mr. Trump has promised to put on top of Tuesday’s 25 percent. He said that he believes the president is telling the world: “This is what I’m able to do to my closest allies — think about what’s awaiting you.”

Mr. Simard added: “It’s an old barbarian approach to war.”

As the tariffs were rolled out, actions against American goods quickly came into play. Government-owned liquor stores, including in Ontario, pulled U.S. beer, wine and spirits from off their shelves, and that province canceled a 100 million Canadian dollar ($69 million) contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service to provide internet in rural areas.

Some Canadians are also vowing not to travel south, a decision perhaps also informed by the decline of the Canadian dollar brought on by the tariffs.

Most winters, Lee Miller, a retired electrician from Saint John, New Brunswick, would be traveling in his motor home through sunny warm states, including Florida.

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“As soon as Trump started talking tariffs, I said, ‘Nope, not going,’” Mr. Miller said. After canceling this year’s trip, he plans not to enter the United States as long as Mr. Trump is president. That will, however, mean missed visits with friends and family who live across the border.

“This is one of those things that tears families apart,” he said.

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Venezuelan dissident Machado credits Trump for advancing freedom movement, dedicates Nobel to him

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Venezuelan dissident Machado credits Trump for advancing freedom movement, dedicates Nobel to him

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FIRST ON FOX: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is crediting President Donald Trump for helping sustain Venezuela’s pro-democracy movement while dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to him, telling Fox News Digital that he provided critical support at a moment when Venezuelans felt abandoned by the international community.

“I am absolutely grateful to President Trump for every gesture, every signal and every moment that he has stood with the Venezuelan people. I have watched it very closely, and I know what it has meant for those who are fighting to reclaim democracy and freedom in our country,” she stated.

“A free and democratic Venezuela is not only possible — it is closer than ever. And that free Venezuela is breathing louder than ever before,” Machado said, adding that her Nobel Peace Prize is also dedicated to Trump. “This Nobel Prize is symbolic of that fight for freedom and is dedicated to the Venezuelan people and to President Trump for showing what strong leadership looks like in the moments that matter most.”

EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’

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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)

An official familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that Machado hopes to visit the U.S. and meet the president to formally honor him for what she views as his support for the Venezuelan people.

Machado’s remarks come as she re-emerged publicly in Oslo, Norway, after spending 11 months in hiding. After a brief detention during an anti-government protest in Caracas, she went underground as pressure from the Maduro government intensified.

Her return to the public eye coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, where her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the award on her behalf. The Associated Press reported that Machado waved to cheering supporters from a hotel balcony — her first public appearance in nearly a year.

SCHUMER ACCUSES TRUMP OF PUSHING US TOWARD ‘FOREIGN WAR’ WITH VENEZUELA

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The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, on Dec. 10. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

Machado was barred from running in the 2024 presidential election despite winning the opposition primary by a wide margin, a move that drew strong criticism from Western governments.

Roxanna Vigil, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Fox News Digital that Machado remains “the most popular political figure in Venezuela,” adding that she secured “over 90% of the vote” in the opposition primary before being blocked by Maduro. “She became a real threat… and so they disqualified her from running,” Vigil said. Machado ultimately endorsed Edmundo González, who went on to win the election.

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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, the day before his inauguration for a third term. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

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Machado ultimately endorsed González, who was widely regarded by independent tallies of the result as having won the 2024 election, but who did not assume the presidency after Venezuela’s official National Electoral Council, controlled by Maduro allies, declared Nicolás Maduro the winner and inaugurated him for another term.

Machado has signaled she intends to return to Venezuela when conditions allow and continues to call for a peaceful transition away from Maduro’s rule.

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Residents emerge in DR Congo’s tense Uvira after M23 rebel takeover

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Residents emerge in DR Congo’s tense Uvira after M23 rebel takeover

A cautious calm has settled over the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Uvira in South Kivu province, as residents begin emerging from their homes following its capture by M23 rebels.

The capture earlier this week threatens to derail a United States-brokered peace agreement, signed with much fanfare and overseen by President Donald Trump a week ago, between Congolese and Rwandan leaders, with Washington accusing Rwanda on Friday of igniting the offensive.

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Regional authorities say at least 400 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in the violence between the cities of Bukavu and Uvira, both now under M23 control.

Al Jazeera is the only international broadcaster in Uvira, where correspondent Alain Uaykani on Saturday described an uneasy calm in the port city on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika, which sits directly across from Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura.

Uaykani said government and allied militias, known as “Wazalendo”, which had been using the city as a headquarters, began fleeing even before M23 fighters entered.

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Residents who fled as the Rwanda-backed group advanced have begun returning to their homes, though most shops and businesses remain shuttered.

“People are coming out, they feel the fear is behind them,” Uaykani said, though he noted the situation remains fragile with signs of intense combat visible throughout the city.

Bienvenue Mwatumabire, a resident of Uvira, told Al Jazeera he was at work when fighting between rebels and government forces broke out, and he heard gunshots from a neighbouring village and decided to stop, but said that “today we have noticed things are getting back to normal.”

Baoleze Beinfait, another Uvira resident, said people in the city were not being harassed by the rebels, but added, “We will see how things are in the coming days.”

M23’s spokesperson defended the offensive, claiming the group had “liberated” Uvira from what he called “terrorist forces”. The rebels say they are protecting ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern DRC, a region that has seen fighting intensify since earlier this year.

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The offensive, which began on December 2, has displaced more than 200,000 people across South Kivu province, according to local United Nations partners.

Rwanda accused of backing rebels

South Kivu officials said Rwandan special forces and foreign mercenaries were operating in Uvira “in clear violation” of both the recent Washington accords and earlier ceasefire agreements reached in Doha, Qatar.

At the UN Security Council on Friday, US ambassador Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of leading the region “towards increased instability and war,” warning that Washington would hold spoilers to peace accountable.

Waltz said Rwanda has maintained strategic control of M23 since the group re-emerged in 2021, with between 5,000 and 7,000 Rwandan troops fighting alongside the rebels in Congo as of early December.

“Kigali has been intimately involved in planning and executing the war in eastern DRC,” Waltz told the UNSC, referring to Rwanda’s capital.

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Rwanda’s UN ambassador denied the allegations, accusing the DRC of violating the ceasefire. Rwanda acknowledges having troops in eastern DRC but says they are there to safeguard its security, particularly against Hutu militia groups that fled across the border to Congo after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

The fall of Uvira has raised the alarm in neighbouring Burundi, which has deployed forces to the region. Burundi’s UN ambassador warned that “restraint has its limits,” saying continued attacks would make it difficult to avoid direct confrontation between the two countries.

More than 30,000 refugees have fled into Burundi in recent days.

The DRC’s foreign minister urged the UNSC to hold Rwanda accountable, saying “impunity has gone on for far too long”.

A report by the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats project said Rwanda provided significant support to M23’s Uvira offensive, calling it the group’s most consequential operation since March.

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Al Jazeera’s UN correspondent Kristen Saloomey said UNSC members were briefed by experts who noted that civilians in DRC are not benefitting from the recent agreements negotiated between Kinshasa and Kigali.

More than 100 armed groups are fighting for control of mineral-rich eastern DRC near the Rwandan border. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than seven million people displaced across the region.

The M23 group is not party to the Washington-mediated negotiations between DRC and Rwanda, participating instead in separate talks with the Congolese government hosted by Qatar.

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Video: Deadly Storm Causes Massive Flooding Across Gaza

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Video: Deadly Storm Causes Massive Flooding Across Gaza

new video loaded: Deadly Storm Causes Massive Flooding Across Gaza

Nearly 795,000 displaced people in Gaza were at risk of dangerous floodwaters, according to the United Nations. The heavy rain and strong winds flooded makeshift shelters and collapsed several buildings, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

By Jorge Mitssunaga, Nader Ibrahim and Saher Alghorra

December 12, 2025

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