President Donald Trump threatened Friday to impose tariffs on Canada in retaliation for wildfire smoke blanketing much of the Midwestern and eastern United States.
Trump said he is holding Canada responsible for the smoke and vowed to call Prime Minister Mark Carney, suggesting the “cost of this pollution” could be added to existing tariffs.
The White House did not respond to questions about what legal mechanism Trump would use to impose such tariffs or how the administration would calculate the rate of the levies.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying,” the president added.
Canadian officials are currently battling 896 active blazes across the country, including roughly 200 burning in Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford said 81 remain out of control.
More than a dozen U.S. states are under air quality alerts, with officials urging residents in cities including Chicago and Washington, D.C., to stay indoors or wear masks.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Friday the “impacts of the Canadian wildfires are causing great concern and harm across the United States,” adding that the agency would “strongly encourage them to do everything in their power to extinguish these fires as fast as possible.”
Canadian Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski responded that the country is “working with urgency alongside provincial and territorial partners” and noted Canada has spent billions of dollars on forest fire prevention in recent years.
Carney pushed back during a news conference in London, Ontario, taking a subtle jab at U.S. environmental policy by stating: “Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States.”
Trump’s existing tariffs on goods from Canada currently stand at 10%, though most Canadian imports are exempt because they comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, signed during Trump’s first term.
The president’s broader tariff authority has already been constrained by a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that blocked him from using an economic emergency powers law.
Scientists have attributed the proliferation of wildfires across North America to factors including hot and dry conditions worsened by climate change, which the Trump administration has broadly disputed.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has moved in recent months to dismantle government labs researching wildfire smoke and its health effects.
Republican Reps. John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar, and Lisa McClain of Michigan wrote to Carney stating: “This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to.”
The four Republicans added: “If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) announced plans to introduce legislation that would impose sanctions on Canada and Canadian officials “for this atrocity.”
