Trump threatens new Canada tariffs over wildfire smoke spilling into U.S.

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Trump threatens Canada tariffs

Highlights

Donald Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada, blaming Ottawa for wildfire smoke drifting into U.S. cities and causing economic damage.
Trade tensions escalate as U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer rules out long-term renewal of the 2020 trade deal, favoring rolling renegotiations.
The U.S. Supreme Court restricts Trump's ability to impose emergency tariffs, heightening uncertainty around potential actions against Canada over smoke.

Smoke dispute escalates into trade threat

As reported by Financial Times, Trump says Canada is failing to manage its forests and brush properly, and argues that polluted air drifting south is imposing heavy costs on the U.S. In a Truth Social post, he accuses Ottawa of willful negligence and says the economic damage should be added to the tariffs Canada already pays.

His remarks come as dense smoke from fires in northern Canada settles over Washington and triggers warnings about dangerous air quality. Polluted air is also spreading across parts of the Midwest and East Coast, prompting similar alerts in cities including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, while Toronto is also affected.

Trump says he plans to call Prime Minister Mark Carney to ask what Canada is going to do about the smoke. A spokesperson for Carney does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trade tensions and legal limits

Relations between the two countries are already tense as the White House rethinks its North American trade framework. Earlier this month, U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer says Washington will avoid a long-term renewal of the 2020 trade deal with Canada and Mexico and instead pursue rolling talks that could prolong renegotiations with two of its biggest trading partners.

Trump is also facing constraints on how he can deploy tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court rules earlier this year that he cannot use emergency powers to impose duties on trading partners. That decision forces officials to rely on a narrower set of procedural laws, while many of Trump's earlier "liberation day" tariffs remain canceled, leaving uncertainty over what authority he could use to target Canada over wildfire smoke.

Carney has been one of Trump's sharpest critics during the president's second term, especially over claims that Canada should become the 51st state and over repeated tariff threats. In recent months, however, he shifts toward calling for deeper U.S.-Canada integration in an effort to protect a trade agreement and avoid years of difficult negotiations.

Our earlier article covered Trump Media & Technology Group’s plan to launch a premium “Truth API” that would give trading firms millisecond-faster access to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts. We noted that markets increasingly react to Trump’s comments on tariffs, geopolitics and individual companies, raising demand for ultra-fast delivery of his statements and sparking debate over paid access to market-moving information.

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