Trudeau says Trump serious about Canada joining the U.S.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed the opinion that the threat of US President Donald Trump to make Canada the 51st state is real. This was reported on February 7 by the CTV channel, citing an interlocutor.

"[Trudeau] believes that Trump's threat to make Canada the 51st state is real, in part because of his desire to gain access to Canada's critical minerals," the interlocutor said.

According to his information, Trudeau said that the American leader is not joking when he claims that Canada is part of the United States because he intends to access the country's mineral resources.

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Earlier, on February 2, Trump said that if Canada wants to achieve tax cuts and not pay customs duties, it should join the United States as the 51st state.

Prior to that, on Feb. 1, Trump signed an executive order imposing trade tariffs on goods from Canada, China and Mexico. He said Canada was responsible for significant amounts of drug smuggling into the US. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country had an equal, strong and reasonable response to Trump's imposition of duties.

On the same day, Trudeau announced that Canadian authorities are imposing retaliatory duties of 25% on goods from the U.S. totaling $155 billion, which will include immediate duties on $30 billion worth of goods starting Tuesday, February 4.