TORONTO (AP) — U.S. 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.And oil is only the beginning.Canada also supplies aluminum, potash to U.S. farms and parts for an auto industry built on both sides of the border.“WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” Trump posted this week, repeating his long-running claim.Yet Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian aluminum while acknowledging this week that the United States badly needs the metal.“This country desperately needs aluminum,” Trump said. “We don’t have it. 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 fuels American industryCanada is the United States’ second-largest 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.
