World
Canada is already examining tariffs on certain US items following Trump's tariff threat
TORONTO (AP) — Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the United States should President-elect Donald Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official said Wednesday.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
A Canadian government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Many of the U.S. products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually and most comes from one plant in Wisconsin, home state of then-House Speaker Paul Ryan. That product was hit with a 10% duty.
Another product on the list was whiskey, which comes from Tennessee and Kentucky, the latter of which is the home state of then-Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump made the threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.
The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.
Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are happy to work with the Trump administration to lower the numbers from Canada. The Canadians are also worried about a influx north of migrants if Trump follows through with his plan for mass deportations.
Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border pale in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Canadian officials argue their country is not the problem and that tariffs will have severe implications for both countries.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
“Canada is essential to the United States’ domestic energy supply,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
Trump has pledged to cut American energy bills in half within 18 months, something that could be made harder if a 25% premium is added to Canadian oil imports. In 2023, Canadian oil accounted for almost two-thirds of total U.S. oil imports and about one-fifth of the U.S. oil supply.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is holding a emergency virtual meeting on Wednesday with the leaders of Canada’s provinces, who want Trudeau to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States that excludes Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her administration is already working up a list of possible retaliatory tariffs “if the situation comes to that.”
China appears to have conducted the maiden flight of its new sixth-generation fighter aircraft, marking a significant milestone in the ever-evolving landscape of fighter jets.
Video and photos from social media showed the previously unseen aircraft conducting a daytime test flight, alongside a two-seat Chengdu J-20S fighter, which served as a chase plane.
The planes were soaring high in Chengdu, Sichuan, China on Dec. 26, which is notably the birthday of the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong.
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Chinese military aircraft fly in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, in this screengrab taken from a social media video released on December 26, 2024. (Social Media/via REUTERS)
Photos and video of the tailless Chinese aircraft came as the U.S. continues to work on developing its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jet.
The NGAD fighter jet is intended to replace the F-22 Raptor, a fifth-generation stealth combat aircraft that has been in service with the U.S. Air Force since the early 2000s.
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Fifth generation aircraft incorporated stealth technology, with the sixth generation aircraft promising further advancements.
Chinese military aircraft fly in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, in this screengrab taken from a social media video released on December 26, 2024. (Social Media/via REUTERS)
This new aircraft is the latest in a series of milestones for China’s aviation. At the Zhuhai Airshow, China unveiled the J-35A fifth-generation fighter jet and the J-15T fighter.
Fox News Digital has reached out to China’s Ministry of Defense for comment.
About 473 million, or more than one in six children, are estimated to live in conflict areas worldwide, according to the United Nations children’s agency.
UNICEF’s statement came on Saturday as conflicts continue to rage around the world, including in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, among other places.
In Israel’s devastating war on Gaza in particular, at least 17,492 children have reportedly been killed in nearly 15 months of conflict that has reduced much of the enclave to rubble.
“By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in UNICEF’s history – both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
According to Russell, a child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home compared with a child living in places with no conflict.
“This must not be the new normal. We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars,” the director said.
The proportion of children living in areas of conflict has doubled – from about 10 percent in the 1990s to almost 19 percent today, UNICEF said.
According to the report, 47.2 million children were displaced due to conflict and violence by the end of 2023.
The trends for 2024 indicate a further increase in displacement because various conflicts have intensified, including in Haiti, Lebanon, Myanmar, the Palestinian territories and Sudan.
Additionally, in the latest available data, from 2023, the UN verified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children – the highest number since UN Security Council-mandated monitoring began, UNICEF said.
There is an overall upward trend in the number of grave violations, with this year likely to see another increase, as “thousands of children have been killed and injured in Gaza, and in Ukraine”, the agency said.
Sexual violence against children has surged, their education has been affected, children’s malnutrition rates have risen and armed conflicts have taken a larger toll on children’s mental health, UNICEF also reported.
“The world is failing these children. As we look towards 2025, we must do more to turn the tide and save and improve the lives of children,” Russell said.
Gaza’s children ‘cold, sick, traumatised’
In Gaza – where the Israeli military has killed more women and children in the past year than in any recent conflict over a single year, Oxfam reported in September – the ongoing war is a “nightmare” for children, UNICEF Communication Specialist Rosalia Bollen said last week at a media briefing.
“Children in Gaza are cold, sick and traumatised,” Bollen said last Friday.
About 96 percent of women and children in Gaza cannot meet their basic nutritional needs, she said, lamenting the lack of aid able to reach children in the Strip.
“Gaza must be one of the most heartbreaking places on Earth for humanitarians. Every small effort to save a child’s life is undone by fierce devastation,” said Bollen.
“For over 14 months, children have been at the sharp edge of this nightmare.”
Bollen said that many children in the besieged enclave don’t have winter clothes, have to resort to searching through rubbish for provisions and are plagued with diseases.
She urged the use of political capital and diplomatic leverage to push for the evacuation of injured children and their parents to leave Gaza and seek medical care in East Jerusalem or elsewhere.
“This war should haunt every one of us. Gaza’s children cannot wait,” she pressed.
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