What’s Trump’s problem with Canada?
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours, and since the end of the Second World War that’s exactly what the US and Canada have been. They’ve enjoyed free trade agreements, close knit economic ties - and not so friendly ice hockey matches. But recently this relationship has soured, with President Trump calling them “one of the nastiest countries to deal with”. It looks like the era of mostly free trade is over, with a raft of tariffs set to come into force on April the 2nd, or “liberation day” a Donald Trump calls it. But is President Trump right about the trading relationship between the two countries? What does he mean when he claims that “the US subsidises Canada $200 billion a year”? Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series Producer: Tom Colls Editor: Richard Vadon Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Studio manager: Andrew Mills
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot. |
| 0:09.3 | I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II. |
| 0:17.6 | What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz. |
| 0:22.0 | Tales of deception, an incredible acts of resistance and courage. |
| 0:26.3 | She was a born soldier. |
| 0:27.4 | She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense. |
| 0:29.9 | The brand new series of History's Secret Heroes. |
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| 0:39.6 | With a program that provides a numerical oasis in the desert of data disinformation, so come and relax under the statistical shade |
| 0:46.4 | with me, Tim Harford. The 2nd of April is Liberation Day. Excellent. What's Liberation Day? Liberation Day in America. And what we're going |
| 0:58.4 | to be doing is a 25% tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States. So not as fun as it |
| 1:05.2 | sounds. Liberation Day, a day which, by the way, has already changed date at least once, |
| 1:09.8 | also includes tariffs on imports from countries, including... |
| 1:13.6 | One of the nastiest countries to deal with. |
| 1:16.4 | Ooh, I wonder which country this could be. North Korea? Russia? Mordor? |
| 1:22.6 | Canada. Canada, eh? That's President Trump talking to Fox News about his decision to implement 25% |
| 1:30.6 | tariffs on many goods crossing the US-Canada border. A 25% tariff is a highly unusual move, |
| 1:38.2 | especially on one of your closest neighbours and allies. So what are his motives? Well, |
| 1:43.1 | according to Trump, it is definitely not about pressuring |
| 1:45.5 | Mexico and Canada to make amendments to the USMCA free trade agreement with the US, which, by the way, |
| 1:52.3 | Trump negotiated in his first term. |
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