President Donald Trump says his country does not need Canada. But every day, roughly 4 million barrels of Canadian crude oil flow south, helping fuel American cars, trucks and airplanes and supply U.S. industry. Canada also supplies aluminum, potash to U.S. farms and parts for an auto industry built on both sides of the border.
Yet Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian aluminum while acknowledging this week that the United States badly needs the metal. We get it all from Canada for the most part, and we need it badly.” The contradiction underscores how deeply the two economies remain intertwined — and how much could be at stake if Trump’s trade war reaches more of the energy, materials and supply chains that the U.S. still relies on Canada to provide. Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner after Mexico, and energy is at the heart of that relationship.
The two countries exchanged about $872 billion in goods and services last year. Canadian crude imports equal nearly 20% of total U.S. petroleum consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University, said Trump’s claim that the U.S. doesn't need Canada is “absolutely false,” citing U.S. reliance on Canadian oil and natural gas and deeply integrated industries such as autos. Much of Canada’s crude flows to Midwest refineries built to process its heavy oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Energy also explains much of the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which Trump frequently cites as evidence of an unfair relationship.
The White House this week portrayed the relationship in starkly negative terms, saying Canada had taken roughly $50 billion a year from the U.S. over the past decade. Much of that gap reflects U.S. purchases of Canadian energy, which helps power the U.S. economy. And Canada's heavy crude typically trades at a discount to U.S. benchmark oil, according to the U.S.
Energy Information Administration. Energy more than accounted for last year’s $48.3 billion goods deficit. Without energy, the U.S. would have run a trade surplus.
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