Former CBO Director Says Tariff Impact Would Cause Canada’s Economy to Enter a Recession

EXCERPT:

HOLTZ-EAKIN: “It would be a recession for the Canadian economy, no question. They rely heavily on the United States for roughly 80 percent of their exports. Those tariffs would really hurt the sales into the U.S. And so, they’re going to try to avoid that. And, you know, one of the things they came to us, put more resources on the border and put more drones out there, put more bodies out there. Try to intercept the flow of fentanyl, especially some illegal immigration, not nearly the southern border, but that’s one way to think about this. Just sort of a rifle shot. But I think the right way to think about this is it is very common for trade deals to have sidebars, sidebars on labor standards, sidebars on environmental standards. And I think the president-elect is setting to have a sidebar on border standards and do it with both Mexico and Canada in the context of renegotiating the trade agreement in 2026. It’s coming and this is just the opening salvo in that negotiation. Let’s have a permanent fix to this border issue.”