Trump threatened on social media Monday night to slap a 25 per cent tariff on imports from the U.S.'s closest neighbours, unless the two countries stop illegal border crossings and prevent illicit drugs such as fentanyl from entering the U.S.

"One of the things that is really important to understand is that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There's no question about it," Trudeau said when speaking with reporters in Queens County, P.E.I. on Friday.

But the prime minister said Canada can take the same approach to working with Trump as it did during his first term as president.

Trudeau said his government started assembling its outreach plan for the next U.S. administration at the start of the year, when the government began its "Team Canada" effort by pulling together premiers, business and labour leaders to network with officials and politicians across the U.S.

Trudeau activated a similar response during Trump's first term in the White House, dispatching Canadians of all political stripes to remind American officials that the two nations' economies are joined at the hip and that trade conflicts would cause blowback for American businesses and consumers as well.

Trudeau said he plans to remind Trump repeatedly that such tariffs would hamper the president's own political goals as well.

"Our responsibility is to point out in this way, he would be actually not just be harming Canadians," Trudeau said. "He'd actually be raising prices for American citizens as well and hurting American industry and businesses."

Trudeau convened a meeting with the premiers on Wednesday at their request to discuss the incoming U.S. administration's approach on trade and its concerns about the Canadian border.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2024.