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Did the Canadian government threaten a "100 percent tariff on Tesla" in February 2025? No, that's not true: While the federal government in Ottawa was considering its options, the Department of Finance Canada said," The claim is false." Instead, proposals to impose a 100 percent tax on Teslas came from individual Canadian politicians, not the government itself.
The implied claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on February 10, 2025. The post's caption said:
BREAKING: Canada Just Told Trump That if he moves forward with his tariff on Canada, They will put '100% tariff on Tesla'
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Feb 12 15:59:07 2025 UTC)
The post does not provide any evidence to support the implied assertion that the Canadian government threatened a 100 percent tariff on Teslas in February 2025. Elon Musk, head of the U.S. Department of Government Accountability, is also the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla.
Steel and aluminum tariffs
On February 10, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States. A White House fact sheet (archived here) released the following day said there were no exemptions to the tax.
Most of the steel the United States buys comes from Canada (23 percent), then Mexico (16 percent), Brazil (13 percent) and South Korea (9 percent), according to the U.S. Geological Survey's 2025 annual steel and iron report (archived here). The rest -- 39 percent -- comes from other countries.
Google search
A Google News search (archived here) using the words "100% tariff on Tesla" found no evidence to support the social media claim about the Canadian government as of February 12, 2025.
Additionally, CTV News reported (archived here) on February 12, 2025, that the premiers of Canada's provinces and territories were huddling to consider their response to Trump's potential tariffs.
New Democratic Party
The threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on Tesla came from the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) Jagmeet Singh, not the Canadian government. In a February 10, 2025, news release (archived here), following Trump's announcement, Singh said:
Donald Trump has unleashed a trade war on Canada and our workers. We can't let it go unanswered, and we can't let working Canadians pay the price for Trump's attack. ...
And there's no faster way to end a trade attack than with a strong fightback. That's why I want dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs in place urgently, a 100 per cent tariff on Elon Musk's Teslas, and changes to procurement so Canada buys Canadian-made steel and aluminum for Canadian construction and manufacturing - protecting good, Canadian jobs.
NDP is an opposition party. It doesn't make policy for the ruling Liberal Party of Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau. It can only suggest it.
Singh is the second Canadian politician to make such a suggestion. In late January 2025, Liberal Party leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland also said Ottawa should target Tesla in retaliation against U.S. tariffs. She recommended a 100 percent tariff on the automobiles in an interview (archived here) published in The Canadian Press on January 31, 2025. Freeland said:
We need to be very targeted, very surgical, very precise. We need to look through and say who is supporting Trump and how can we make them pay a price for a tariff attack on Canada.
On the same date, Freeland also published a post and video (archived here) on Facebook calling for a 100 percent tariff on Teslas and other U.S. products. The video's caption said:
If Donald Trump slaps 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, we must hit back -- dollar for dollar -- starting with 100% tariffs on all Tesla vehicles and U.S. wine, beer, and spirits. We must protect Canadian workers and businesses.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Feb 12 18:31:36 2025 UTC)
At the time, Freeland was speculating about Canada's response ahead of Trump's signing of an executive order (archived here) on February 1, 2025, imposing tariffs on most imports from America's northern neighbor, as well as Mexico and China. Trump said on social media (archived here) that he was taking the tariff actions to stop illegal drugs and immigrants from crossing the U.S. borders.
Tariffs on hold
But a few days later, on February 3, 2025, Trump said he agreed to pause tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days after speaking with the leaders of the two countries.
Following a phone call with Trump on February 3, 2025, Trudeau also announced on social media (archived here) that "Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days."
It's uncertain how the latest round of tariffs from Trump will impact those negotiations.
Department of Finance Canada
In a February 13, 2025, email to Lead Stories, the Department of Finance Canada, the government agency that would announce any tariffs, said, "The claim is false."
Read more
At the time this story was written, Snopes had reviewed a similar claim.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Canada can be found here.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Donald Trump can be found here.
Updates:
2025-02-13T17:22:45Z 2025-02-13T17:22:45Z Adds context from the Department of Finance Canada.
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