Canada is preparing billions of dollars in retaliatory import taxes on American products if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his tariff threats.
Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the potential retaliation would be spread across the whole of the U.S. and that “everything is on the table,” speaking on Wednesday at a meeting with provincial leaders in Ottawa.
Trump has previously threatened to use “economic force” and impose 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian imports, a threat which he has linked to the smuggling of fentanyl and illegal migration across the U.S.-Canada border.
Trump has also previously and repeatedly said it would be a “great idea” for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state, prompting Trudeau to retort that there is “not a snowball’s chance in hell” of that happening.
A blanket U.S. tariff on Canadian imports would hit Canada’s oil industry particularly hard since it exports the majority of its crude oil to the U.S., according to official statistics.
It would also potentially increase energy prices for Americans.
About 60 percent of the U.S.‘s crude oil supply comes from Canada, along with almost all of its natural gas, large amounts of its electricity imports, and uranium for nuclear power.
“[Tariffs] will mean higher gas prices, it will mean higher food prices, it will mean higher natural gas prices for heating people’s homes,” said Canada’s Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, speaking to the Associated Press.
Orange juice is reported to be among the list of products that would be targeted in any Canadian response, which might also include toilets and steel products.
The choice of Florida’s most famous export is a symbolic one, perhaps designed to draw attention to Donald Trump and voters in one of his home states.
Canada only imports around 360 tons of the orange stuff annually, a drop in the ocean of the nearly three million tons that the U.S. produces annually.
Canada has previously imposed tariffs on yogurt from Wisconsin and whiskey from Kentucky.